europe and the spirit world

EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD OR THE FASCINATION WITH THE OCCULT, 1750-1950 MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF STRASBOURG 8TH OCTOBER 2011 / 12TH FEBRUARY 2012

In collaboration In collaboration In collaboration In collaboration withwithwithwith the the the the National University Library of Strasbourg National University Library of Strasbourg National University Library of Strasbourg National University Library of Strasbourg (BNU) and t(BNU) and t(BNU) and t(BNU) and thehehehe Garden of Science at the Garden of Science at the Garden of Science at the Garden of Science at the University of StrasbourgUniversity of StrasbourgUniversity of StrasbourgUniversity of Strasbourg, , , , This event is recognized by the Minister of Culture and Communication/ General Direction of National heritage/Museum Services of France as an exhibition of “national interest”. Accordingly, it receives special financial backing from the State. Under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and Communication. It also figures under the patronage of Monsieur Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the European Council.

National and International PNational and International PNational and International PNational and International Press Relationsress Relationsress Relationsress Relations Heymann, Renoult Associated Sarah Heymann, Laurence Gillion, Annabelle Floriant [email protected] Tél : (+33) 01 44 61 76 76 Press release and visuals downloadable: www.heymann-renoult.com

Regional press relationsRegional press relationsRegional press relationsRegional press relations The Museums Communication Services Julie Barth [email protected] Tél : 03 88 52 50 15 Press Release and visuals downloadable: www.musees.strasbourg.eu

PRESS KIT ‘EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD OR THE FASCINATION WITH THE OCCULT, 1750-1950’ MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF STRASBOURG, 8 TH OCTOBER 2011 – 12TH FEBRUARY 2012

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1. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION PAGE 2 2. EXHIBITION ITINERARY PAGE 5 3. STAGING AND DESIGN PAGE 10 4. LENDING INSTITUTIONS PAGE 12 5. EXHIBITION PUBLICATIONS PAGE 15 6. SERGE FAUCHEREAU PAGE 20 7. CULTURAL AND SCHOOLS EVENTS PROGRAMME PAGE 21 8. A CO-PRODUCTION WITH BERN’S ZENTRUM PAUL KLEE PAGE 23 9. EXHIBITION PARTNERS PAGE 24 10. EXHIBITIONS AWARDED FRANCE’S ‘NATIONAL IMPORTANCE’ STATUS IN 2011 PAGE 27 11. SATELLITE EXHIBITION AT STRASBOURG’S HISTORICAL MUSEUM PAGE 28 12. PRACTICAL INFORMATION PAGE 29 13. PRESS VISUALS PAGE 30


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1111. . . . About the exhibitionAbout the exhibitionAbout the exhibitionAbout the exhibition ‘‘‘‘Europe and the Spirit World orEurope and the Spirit World orEurope and the Spirit World orEurope and the Spirit World or the Fascination with the Occult the Fascination with the Occult the Fascination with the Occult the Fascination with the Occult, 1750, 1750, 1750, 1750----1950’1950’1950’1950’ is a crossis a crossis a crossis a cross----disciplinadisciplinadisciplinadisciplinary ry ry ry exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three sections: sections: sections: sections: ---- T T T The creative arts: he creative arts: he creative arts: he creative arts: ppppainting, drawainting, drawainting, drawainting, drawing, sculpture, printing, sculpture, printing, sculpture, printing, sculpture, print----making and photography, making and photography, making and photography, making and photography, the the the the literature literature literature literature of the of the of the of the irrational and unexplainedirrational and unexplainedirrational and unexplainedirrational and unexplained.... ---- TTTThe esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s he esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s he esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s he esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s foundational texts and print iconography.foundational texts and print iconography.foundational texts and print iconography.foundational texts and print iconography. ---- TTTThe relationshe relationshe relationshe relationship between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and hip between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and hip between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and hip between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and thinkers, and thinkers, and thinkers, and thinkers, and an examinationan examinationan examinationan examination of their experiments and scientific instruments. of their experiments and scientific instruments. of their experiments and scientific instruments. of their experiments and scientific instruments. With some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from aWith some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from aWith some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from aWith some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from a host of host of host of host of European countries, European countries, European countries, European countries, Europe and the Spirit WorldEurope and the Spirit WorldEurope and the Spirit WorldEurope and the Spirit World will be presented in a dedicated 2500 will be presented in a dedicated 2500 will be presented in a dedicated 2500 will be presented in a dedicated 2500----m2 space at the m2 space at the m2 space at the m2 space at the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourgthe Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourgthe Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourgthe Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg. . . . Spirit realms: European literature and artSpirit realms: European literature and artSpirit realms: European literature and artSpirit realms: European literature and art Section presented by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg. ‘There is something that comes from far beyond the realm of man, and goes so much further, too,’ wrote André Breton. The fascination for the irrational and obscure – seemingly as old as humanity itself – finds particular expression in art. And yet it is precisely –paradoxically – at the moment when science, in the Age of Enlightenment, claimed to shed new and rational light on our world, that we see the first signs of the Romantic movement, and the reactionary rise of Spiritualism. People of an inquiring mind readily confused that which was not understood, with that which people wanted to believe: the existence of ghosts, fairies, and demons. The poet and painter William Blake was visited by spirits, and Goethe sought to penetrate the mysteries of living matter and colour. The German Romantic author Novalis spoke of ‘magical art’, ushering in a new concept of the artist as clairvoyant or medium. With the emergence of spiritism in the mid-19th century, Victor Hugo was the first major creative artist to question the spirits through séances and table-turning. Spiritism soon spread to other fields, and found its leading theoretician in Allan Kardec, author of the Livre des Esprits (1857). Fairies, demons, vampires, spirits, demonic possessions and communication with the dead all enjoyed renewed popularity, giving rise to an inexhaustible vein of imagery. Symbolists and members of the Nabis group were fascinated by the occult, under the leadership of the Strasbourg-born writer and mystic Édouard Schuré. The movement encompassed literature, architecture, dance and music (from Mozart to Wagner, Satie to Varese), photography and the new medium of cinema (from Méliès to Fritz Lang). At the turn of the 20th century, the role and powers of mediums and parapsychological phenomena, were fiercely debated. European literature and the visual arts were closely implicated. Some personalities were devout spiritists, such as Conan Doyle and Hilma Af Klint. Theosophy attracted Czech painter František Kupka, for a time, and found lasting devotees in Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. In Germany, the Blaue Reiter group also drew on the tenets of theosophy, as seen in the work of Kandinsky and Arp. In France, the Surrealists – artists like André Breton, André Masson, Victor Brauner, and Kurt Seligmann - also sought to explore the ‘realm of marvels’. This section of the exhibition, devoted to the visual arts and literature, revisits the underlying trends that found expression in the rediscovery of dark mythologies and their bewitching imagery, throughout this 200-year period. Some of the 160 featured artists: Some of the 160 featured artists: Some of the 160 featured artists: Some of the 160 featured artists: Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Eugène Delacroix, Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Eugène Delacroix, Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Eugène Delacroix, Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré, Victor Hugo, Akseli GallenGustave Doré, Victor Hugo, Akseli GallenGustave Doré, Victor Hugo, Akseli GallenGustave Doré, Victor Hugo, Akseli Gallen----Kallela, Edvard Munch, FerdinanKallela, Edvard Munch, FerdinanKallela, Edvard Munch, FerdinanKallela, Edvard Munch, Ferdinand Hodler, Odilon Redon, Jan d Hodler, Odilon Redon, Jan d Hodler, Odilon Redon, Jan d Hodler, Odilon Redon, Jan Toorop, Nicholas Roerich, M.Toorop, Nicholas Roerich, M.Toorop, Nicholas Roerich, M.Toorop, Nicholas Roerich, M. K.K.K.K. Čiurlionis, František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevitch, Piet Čiurlionis, František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevitch, Piet Čiurlionis, František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevitch, Piet Čiurlionis, František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevitch, Piet Mondrian, František Drtikol, Dimitrie Paciurea, Jean Hans Arp, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, André Masson, Mondrian, František Drtikol, Dimitrie Paciurea, Jean Hans Arp, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, André Masson, Mondrian, František Drtikol, Dimitrie Paciurea, Jean Hans Arp, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, André Masson, Mondrian, František Drtikol, Dimitrie Paciurea, Jean Hans Arp, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, André Masson, RobeRobeRobeRoberto Matta, Wifredo Larto Matta, Wifredo Larto Matta, Wifredo Larto Matta, Wifredo Lam, m, m, m, FleuryFleuryFleuryFleury----JJJJoseph Crépin, Augustin Lesage andoseph Crépin, Augustin Lesage andoseph Crépin, Augustin Lesage andoseph Crépin, Augustin Lesage and Hélène Smith… Hélène Smith… Hélène Smith… Hélène Smith… The hThe hThe hThe history and iconography of the occultistory and iconography of the occultistory and iconography of the occultistory and iconography of the occult: : : : a a a a world in world in world in world in words and pictureswords and pictureswords and pictureswords and pictures Section presented by the National University Library of Strasbourg and the Print and Drawing room of the Museums of Strasbourg. The esoteric tradition has been a feature of Western civilisation since the earliest times – a tradition that has come down to us in the form of esoteric writings, and the engraved illustrations that so often accompany them. The exhibition presents significant works from the collections of Strasbourg’s national and university library (the BNU), and the prints and drawings collection of Strasbourg’s city museums, exploring the full


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range of topics featured in the Spirit realms exhibition: spiritism, esoterism, occultism, magic, witchcraft, divination… The BNU’s encyclopaedic holdings include a section on occultism and other beliefs, encompassing major, foundational texts of the modern and contemporary periods. The collections of papyri, manuscripts, incunabula, rare and fine books, and Alsatic texts, together with texts devoted to religious science and literature, offer a revealing – but by no means exhaustive – survey of a rich corpus. Historic texts complement the displays of visual artworks, presenting major works in their original, first editions, and highlighting the work of the publishers, printers, engravers and illustrators who established the esoteric tradition and kept it alive, down to the present day. The section aims to focus on works by the movement’s leading authors, at key moments in its long history throughout Europe, and beyond. Complementing the scientific displays included in the main exhibition, the section also presents key scientific works exploring spectral apparitions and other supernatural phenomena, together with an overview of the contact between scientific, mystical and esoteric thought down the centuries. Some of the main authors represented: Pythagoras, PlatoSome of the main authors represented: Pythagoras, PlatoSome of the main authors represented: Pythagoras, PlatoSome of the main authors represented: Pythagoras, Plato, , , , Virgil, Dante, MasterVirgil, Dante, MasterVirgil, Dante, MasterVirgil, Dante, Master Eckhart, MarsileEckhart, MarsileEckhart, MarsileEckhart, Marsile Ficin, Ficin, Ficin, Ficin, Cornelius AgrippaCornelius AgrippaCornelius AgrippaCornelius Agrippa, , , , ParacelsusParacelsusParacelsusParacelsus, Lavater, Lavater, Lavater, Lavater, Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, , Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, , Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, , Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, Goethe, BalzacGoethe, BalzacGoethe, BalzacGoethe, Balzac, Novalis, Kardec, , Novalis, Kardec, , Novalis, Kardec, , Novalis, Kardec, Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. The featured works are all from the The featured works are all from the The featured works are all from the The featured works are all from the collection of thecollection of thecollection of thecollection of the Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasb Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasb Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasb Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg.ourg.ourg.ourg. Featured artists includeFeatured artists includeFeatured artists includeFeatured artists include: Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, : Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, : Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, : Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, Mantegna, Jacques Callot, Mantegna, Jacques Callot, Mantegna, Jacques Callot, Mantegna, Jacques Callot, PiranesiPiranesiPiranesiPiranesi, Girodet, Girodet, Girodet, Girodet----Trioson. Trioson. Trioson. Trioson. Science Science Science Science andandandand the the the the spirit worldspirit worldspirit worldspirit world Section presented by the Zoological Museum of Strasbourg and the Garden of Science at the University of Strasbourg From Chevreul’s experiments with table-turning to the work of metaphysicist Charles Richet, the 19th century was characterised by genuine scientific interest in occult and spiritist phenomena. At the turn of the 20th century, this interest contributed to the development of a number of scientific instruments designed to prove or disprove the possibility of the levitation of objects, the materialization of ghosts, etc. The section takes a threefold look at the interaction between mediums and the scientific world: - The ‘electricity fairy’, wireless telegraphy, radium, X rays, etc.: In the late 19th century, new phenomena were discovered, and new technologies emerged, leading to the development of a variety of machines designed to measure and exploit these new resources. The new phenomena had been observed, but they were not yet explained. Throughout Europe, the public at large was fascinated by this new world of possibilities, taking an ever-closer interest in science. - At the same time, the European public showed a growing fascination with occult phenomena. This popular movement fostered scholarly scientific interest in the activities of mediums – a field studied by eminent figures including William Crookes, Pierre and Marie Curie, Camille Flammarion, and Jean-Martin Charcot. Scientists applied experimental methodology in séances held with the celebrated medium Eusapia Palladino, in an attempt to demonstrate the existence of psychic and paranormal phenomena. Physiologist Charles Richet coined a name for this new field of scientific exploration: metaphysics. - The Great War gave new impetus to the spiritist movement, while the scientific community distanced itself from the latter’s explorations and ‘findings’. Most psychologists and psychiatrists rejected metaphysics as a ‘pseudo-science’. The inter-war years were marked by the professionalization of a new scientific community, whose practice was founded on the development of so-called fundamental, laboratory-based research The section presents numerous objects loaned by prestigious institutions including France’s Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Institut Curie, and Musée de la Médecine in Lyon. The display includes a number of items from the rich collections of the University of Strasbourg, and the Association de muséographie et de médiation scientifique (AMUSS). Featured original instruments include Mesmer’s Featured original instruments include Mesmer’s Featured original instruments include Mesmer’s Featured original instruments include Mesmer’s baquetbaquetbaquetbaquet (the only one of its kind in the world), an X ray (the only one of its kind in the world), an X ray (the only one of its kind in the world), an X ray (the only one of its kind in the world), an X ray tube, a Crookes tube, a telegraphic receiver, tube, a Crookes tube, a telegraphic receiver, tube, a Crookes tube, a telegraphic receiver, tube, a Crookes tube, a telegraphic receiver, a ‘coherer’ designed by a ‘coherer’ designed by a ‘coherer’ designed by a ‘coherer’ designed by Edouard Branly, a photophone by Edouard Branly, a photophone by Edouard Branly, a photophone by Edouard Branly, a photophone by Bell, and more. The displays are accompanied by letters, photographs, press articles and videos.Bell, and more. The displays are accompanied by letters, photographs, press articles and videos.Bell, and more. The displays are accompanied by letters, photographs, press articles and videos.Bell, and more. The displays are accompanied by letters, photographs, press articles and videos.


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CCCCuratorsuratorsuratorsurators----inininin----chiefchiefchiefchief :::: Serge Serge Serge Serge FauchereauFauchereauFauchereauFauchereau, art historian Joëlle PijaudierJoëlle PijaudierJoëlle PijaudierJoëlle Pijaudier----CabotCabotCabotCabot, chief heritage curator and director, Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg Associate curatorsAssociate curatorsAssociate curatorsAssociate curators :::: Daniel Daniel Daniel Daniel BornemannBornemannBornemannBornemann, curator, reserve collections, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg AnnyAnnyAnnyAnny----Claire Claire Claire Claire HausHausHausHaus, curator, Cabinet des Estampes et Dessins de Strasbourg Estelle Estelle Estelle Estelle PietrzykPietrzykPietrzykPietrzyk, curator, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg Sébastien Sébastien Sébastien Sébastien SoubiranSoubiranSoubiranSoubiran, scientific historian, director of museum policy at the Jardin des Sciences - Université de Strasbourg MarieMarieMarieMarie----Dominique Dominique Dominique Dominique WandhammerWandhammerWandhammerWandhammer, curator, Musée Zoologique de Strasbourg Exhibition staExhibition staExhibition staExhibition staging and designging and designging and designging and design : : : : Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein, Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein, Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein, Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein, architects, d.p.l.g. This exhibition has been awarded ‘national importance’ status by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication / Heritage department / French museums service, and has received State financial support in the form of an exceptional grant from the Ministry. Exhibition organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Communication. Exhibition patron: Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

Francisco Goya, La Conjuration (Les Sorcières), 1797-1798, huile sur toile, 43 x 30 cm, Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. Photo : Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid


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2222. . . . Exhibition itineraryExhibition itineraryExhibition itineraryExhibition itinerary THE SPIRIT WORLD: EUROPEAN ART AND LITERATURE The section is is divded into four main categories exploring the Romantic era, the Symbolists, Abstraction and other avant-garde movements, and Surrealism. Certain key artists, like Goya, Čiurlionis, Klee or Arp are the focus of special attention, together with specific topics such as dance, architecture or cinema. The Romantics and the occultThe Romantics and the occultThe Romantics and the occultThe Romantics and the occult Above and beyond the many different faces of the Romantic movement throughout Europe, a handful of elements exert a powerful unifying force, including the celebration of a deliberately prophetic or heroic brand of spirituality, the quest for a state of effusive, heightened emotion and communion with Nature, the attraction of exotic places and the past, and a penchant for dreams, fantasy and the supernatural. The movement’s earliest beginnings were marked by the Spiritualist reaction to the rationality of the Enlightenment, and a marked fascination with the forces of darkness – an attraction shared by all the creative artists represented in this section, from throughout Europe, and closely linked to the world of literature. The itinerary begins with the world of Shakespeare, an important source of inspiration for the English Pre-Romantics and Romantics, and their German and French counterparts: Dadd, Romney, Fuseli, Koch and Chassériau. Shakespeare’s plays – suffused with historical, mythological and fairytale imagery – were a major source of inspiration for Romantic dramatists, along with the Gothic world, and Celtic legends, which in turn inspired a sombre, funereal genre of poetry, testifying to the uncertainties and dark doubts besetting the Western consciousness in the late 18th century. Goya was fascinated by demonic creatures and evil spirits, inspired by the world of Spanish Baroque literature. The presiding, encyclopaedic genius of Goethe is represented in a rare collection of lively drawings – spirited veduti of architectural ruins, and scenes of witchcraft. Some of the drawings illustrate Goethe’s own Faust. Faust the magician – and above all Faust the visionary, driven by his insatiable quest for the secrets of the universe and human destiny to sell his soul to the devil – is the archetype of the Romantic hero. His legend, relayed in Goethe’s literary masterpiece, went on to inspire numerous artists, such as Delacroix and Carus. A group of works by Friedrich, Carus, Blommér and (later) Böcklin herald a new sensitivity to landscape as the physical expression of inner states of being, and a support for spiritual meditation. Spiritism first emerged in the mid-19th century. Victor Hugo – in exile on Guernesey – was one of the first creative artists to question the spirits through séances and table-turning, taking down dictated texts and creating automatic drawings with tremulous, quivering outlines, from which spectral blotches and figures emerge. At the same time, wild cavalcades of evil spirits, vampires, demons, witches and monsters people the works of Boulanger, Bresdin, Jumel de Noireterre and Welti, while classicially-inspired artists like Bra, Hill and Josephson create strange, hallucinatory worlds of their own, following their descent into madness. SymbolismSymbolismSymbolismSymbolism Symbolism flowered in the late 19th century, in a context of profound change affecting European society as a whole: the accelerated sweep of industrialization, and colonial expansion across the globe. Writers, artists and thinkers rejected the materialism that accompanied the dynamic of rapid ‘progress’, and reacted to the rise of aesthetic realism and naturalism by espousing a brand of idealism tinged with deep pessimism, and mysticism focusing on alternative realities and the ‘world beyond’. Spiritism found its theoretician in the person of Allan Kardec and his Livre des Esprits (1857). Its influence quickly spread throughout European society. People everywhere were communicating with the dead. Based on a firm belief in spirits, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875, sparking the proliferation of Spiritualist groups and sects throughout the Western world, often drawing on the doctrines of exotic or forgotten religions and occult sciences like the kabbalah and alchemy. Strasbourg writer Edouard Schuré published an epoch-making work in 1889: Les Grands initiés. The Symbolists and members of the Nabis group were fascinated by the occult, encouraging numerous charlatans, but above all giving rise to works of great artistic quality, as demonstrated in this section of the exhibition: Paul-Élie Ranson, Gustave Moreau or Rodin in France; Jean Delville in Belgium; Jan Toorop in the Netherlands; Bergh in Scandinavia; Perle, Maggi, Somov, Vroubel, Paciurea and others in eastern Europe. The Lithuanian painter and musician Čiurlionis features in a special presentation of an exceptional group of works including his celebrated series of the twelve signs of the zodiac.


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Artists focused on the symbolism of mythology (Gallen Kallela, Séon, Lévy, Hermann), the visual representation of ideas, and primordial archetypes. A popular vein of ‘fantastical Orientalism’ prompted a flourishing of wide-ranging beliefs and mystical excesses (Biegas, Lacombe). The atmosphere of salons held by members of the Rosicrucian movement, established in 1892 under Sâr Péladan, is evoked in a gallery featuring works by Schwabe, Lenoir, Ranson, Rops and Filliger. The section ends with a group of works typifying the unique, transcendental appeal of Symbolism (Delville, Roerich, Hodler, Fidus…). Literature, music and silent film are also represented, together with photography in the form of two groups of works, the first featuring images attempting to capture the invisible world, and supernatural phenomena (Buguet, Darget…); the second featuring mysterious, poetic, visionary images by figures such as Hofmeister and Langdon-Coburn. Abstraction and other Abstraction and other Abstraction and other Abstraction and other avantavantavantavant----gardegardegardegarde movements movements movements movements Works featured at the start of this section illustrate a key moment in the transition to new forms of art. Themes of birth (Malevitch’s Woman in childbirth, 1908; Kupka, Waterlilies, 1900-1902), flowering (Mondrian, Chrysanthemum) or the eternal cycle of death and rebirth (Mondrian, The Windmill, circa 1903) crystallise the preoccupations of many artists and art theorists of the time. Flowers, landscapes and figures would soon give way to abstract compositions (Van Doesburg, Heroic movement, 1916; Kupka, Animated spaces, 1922; Kandinsky, Three elements, 1925) in which rhythmic visual motifs and colour contrasts are the only subject-matter. A fine collection of drawings by Paul Klee (including Mobile spirits, 1923 and Elves, 1939) concludes the first part of this section, devoted to the pioneers of abstraction, with a particular focus on Rudolf Steiner. The exhibition includes a number of teaching aids (‘blackboards’ and Eurythmic figurines) used by Steiner during his lectures at the Goetheanum (the headquarters of the anthroposophical movement, which attracted numerous artists, including the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint), and a number of ‘medium paintings’ produced during Spiritist séances. Dance – hailed as another means of communication with the ‘other side’ – is represented in photographs of Loïe Fuller and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, dancing on the summit of Monte Verita. The Goetheanum is the starting point for an exploration of the relationship between architecture and esoterism (the model for the centre’s second building is featured in the exhibition). Featured works include Albert Trachsel’s drawings for the Fêtes Réelles, fantastical temple domes by Hablik, and utopian schemes by the Croatian architect Jo Klek. The following room explores another aspect of the avant-garde, bringing together Nordic Expressionist works (Sallinen’s striking Hihhulit of 1918), and works from southern Europe (tarot designs by Jose Gutierrez Solana). The section ends with a selection of radical, highly experimental works from the early 20th century, notably Matyushin’s meditation on the fourth dimension (Movement in space, 1918), and works by Herbin, striving for an ideal of ‘non-figurative, non-objective’ art (Synchromy in black, 1938). Surrealist Surrealist Surrealist Surrealist groupingsgroupingsgroupingsgroupings Visitors entering the final gallery in this section are greeted by Victor Brauner’s Chimera of 1939. The space includes some of the Surrealist movement’s most iconic works, and an overview of its many offshoots. A strange composition by Max Ernst (Après moi le sommeil, Hommage à Paul Éluard, 1958) showing a geometric figure nimbed in light, hangs alongside a Crystal (1925) by Josef Sima. Further along, Dali’s Spectral Cow (1928) resonates with Victor Brauner’s L’Animal moderne (1942) and Strigoï (1946). This opening sequence focuses on dreams and fantasy, with works by Toyen, Styrsky and Prinner, together with other works containing explicit references to occult practices: divination with the tarot (Jules Perahim’s Arcana 12: the Hanged Man), intercessors with the hereafter (André Masson’s Witch of 1942) and alchemy (Matta’s The Philospher’s Stone, 1942). A room devoted to works on paper presents an ensemble by practitioners of so-called Art Brut. The astonishing Martian Landscapes by medium Helen Smith compare and contrast with a large textile by Madge Gimm, ink drawings by Jeanne Tripier, pen drawings by Laure Pigeon, and delicate watercolours by Marguerite Burnat-Provins. Some of the genre’s most celebrated exponents are also represented: Augustin Lesage, a miner turned medium and healer (his Untitled canvas of 1925 is a large work of Egyptian inspiration), and Fleury Joseph Crépin (his Tableau merveilleux n°11, 15 June 1946, was part of André Breton’s private collection). The section also includes the work of numerous photographers, including Man Ray’s double portrait of the Surrealist’s leading patron and defender, Edward James (in which he alludes to the phenomenon of telekinesis), and the bizarre nudes of František Drtikol, featuring his wife (a dancer) in images bordering on the unreal. The section ends with a selection of Demeures (‘Residences’) by Georges Malkine (La Demeure de Baudelaire, and Debussy) – imaginary architectural pieces painted in the 1960s as tributes to leading creative artists. Visitors leave the section via the experience of Jacques Hérold’s imposing Grand Transparent (1947). This large-scale bronze, originally made for the International Surrealist Exhibition of the same year, presents an intriguing, complex silhouette, structured like a multi-faceted crystal. A sculptural synthesis of many of the key concepts developed by the Surrealists, Le Grand Transparent is


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the embodiment of a mystical figure of indeterminate type, as imagined by André Breton in his Prologomena to the Third Surrealist Manifesto, which prophesies the advent of creatures such as this, ‘manifesting themselves darkly to us, in fear and a sense of danger’ HISTORY AND ICONOGRAPHY OF THE OCCULT: A WORLD IN WORDS AND PICTURES Section produced in collaboration with National University Library of Strasbourg (BNU) and and Drawing room of the Museums of Strasbourg. ArraArraArraArranged innged innged innged in four four four four parts, an ensemble of some parts, an ensemble of some parts, an ensemble of some parts, an ensemble of some 60606060 prints and drawings prints and drawings prints and drawings prints and drawings ffffromromromrom the period the period the period the period 1475 to 1851 1475 to 1851 1475 to 1851 1475 to 1851 illustrates the exhibition’s central topicillustrates the exhibition’s central topicillustrates the exhibition’s central topicillustrates the exhibition’s central topicssss, with a particular focus on themes of experimentation, , with a particular focus on themes of experimentation, , with a particular focus on themes of experimentation, , with a particular focus on themes of experimentation, exploration and temptation.exploration and temptation.exploration and temptation.exploration and temptation. Exploring the limits of knowledgeExploring the limits of knowledgeExploring the limits of knowledgeExploring the limits of knowledge The section opens with an image of the Tiburtine Sibyl with the Emperor Augustus (a monochrome woodcut by Antonio da Trento, 1527-1530). This portrayal of ancient Roman attempts to decipher the arcana of existence, by consulting dark, mysterious forces thought to possess the secret of individual destinies, is accompanied by scenes of deep meditation – Andrea Andreani’s Woman in meditation (1591), and Salvator Rosa’s Democritus in search of the seat of the soul (1662) – and the states of melancholy that often resulted (Dürer’s famous image of 1514, and a work by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione).

ExploringExploringExploringExploring transgression transgression transgression transgression In Greek and Roman mythology, the quest for knowledge and omniscience – so often assimilated with a thirst for power – led to supernatural dealings between mortal men and the gods. The practice of magic was tolerated by the early Christians, but this peaceful coexistence of belief systems came to an end in the 6th century, when the Church authorities forbade the consultation of witches and soothsayers. Representations of occult practitioners in art abounded, however: artists and writers relayed a comprehensive phantasmagoria of irrational beliefs, focused essentially on witchcraft as a symbolic threat to the established order. Mantegna, Dürer and Baldung Grien all created significant images of supernatural evildoers: Battle of the Seagods, c. 1475; Witch riding backwards on a goat, c. 1500; The Witches’ Sabbath, after 1514; The Bewitched Groom, 1544). The invisible world of spiritsThe invisible world of spiritsThe invisible world of spiritsThe invisible world of spirits Ranged against this demoniacal world, in which women are seen as allies and instruments of the Devil, the Christian saints are presented as ardent defenders of their faith, dedicated body and soul to their divine cause, leading lives founded on purity and chastity, but nonetheless prone to moments of doubt, temptations of the flesh, and the torments of guilt, represented by many artists in the form of monstrous figures and nightmarish apparitions. Schongauer’s aerial Temptations of St Anthony (c. 1473) heralds a new variation on the theme, reinterpreted by Cranach the Elder in 1506, and Callot in 1635.

A fascination with deathA fascination with deathA fascination with deathA fascination with death The legend of Orpheus and Erydice, illustrated by Baur, Brentel and Zix, deals with the transgression of another taboo, namely death, experienced as an impenetrable mystery protected by boundaries impregnable to the tireless assaults of human curiosity. Death is represented sometimes as the Reaper, the arbitrary harbinger of destruction and mourning (Bodan, 1675; Death holding an infant, by Charles Jacque), sometimes (in more Romantic mode) as an exalted moment reuniting the living and dead (Neureuther’s Lénore, after the 1835 Ballads of Gottfried August Bürger; Zix’s Apparition after death), and ultimately as an ineluctable rite of passage, overriding all human schemes (Schuler’s Chariot of Death, 1851).

History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and imagesHistory and iconography of the occult: a world in words and imagesHistory and iconography of the occult: a world in words and imagesHistory and iconography of the occult: a world in words and images Esoteric, occult and spiritist thought systems have given rise to an extensive body of writing and images throughout history – a corpus best examined in chronological perspective. Documents down the centuries record the images and words through which these mystical philosophies have come down to us today. The Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian civilisations provide the earliest traces of mankind’s exploration of the occult, in search of answers to the mysteries of life. Divination, life after death, the nature of the soul, and the journeys of the spirits were explored by the great civilizations of Antiquity; their beliefs and speculations were recorded and disseminated in words and pictures. Hellenistic civilisation achieved a synthesis of these ancient belief systems, which subsequently spread throughout the Mediterranean world through the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, Empedocles, Plato and many others. The practice of magic, philosophical poetry, dialogues and legends forged a rich body of material, retransmitted to and by the Romans, and through the Sibylline tradition.


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Christianity emerged at the heart of the Roman empire, which had become a breeding-ground for increasingly diverse cults and beliefs. Greek and Latin literature had propounded the theories of Pythagorism, classical Neo-Platonism and Hermetism, as well as other belief systems. Hebraic beliefs and philosophy influenced exoteric religion and esoterism alike, notably through the kabbala. But these beliefs and speculations gave rise to theurgical practices and witchcraft – as old as mankind itself – which were in turn embraced by scholars through the science of alchemy, and other forms of magic. Contact with Islam fostered the transmission of certain types of esoteric knowledge, and the Catholic church was also the vehicle for the transmission of its own gnostic and kabbalistic tradition. During the Middle Ages, esoteric speculation and theurgical practices were rejected along with all forms of heresy. However the 14th century saw the emergence of two important movements in the history of Western thought. In Italy, Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic journey through the realms of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, in the course of which Virgil and Beatrice reveal a comprehensive panorama of the Christian afterlife. Rhineland mysticism took these explorations further, seeking contact with the Godhead – the personification of Eternal Wisdom. Centred on Strasbourg, the movement spread throughout much of Europe. Neo-Platonism resurfaced during the Renaissance, through new translations of Platonic and Hermetic texts. Across Europe, the Hermetic sciences were studied by scholars, theologians and doctors of medicine. Strasbourg was once again the base and meeting-point for a number of secret societies, and an important centre for the publishing of their manifestos. In Spain and England mysticism took on new forms, adapted to each country’s national character and religious orientation. The Counter-reformation struggled to contain pockets of disorder with methods of its own, notably a stepping-up of the practice of witch-hunting. The 18th century was a period of intense activity in esoteric movements: Swedenborg, Cagliostro, the Comte de Saint-Germain, the Bavarian Illuminati, and the many different individuals and movements claiming to possess secret knowledge, or researching the nature of the soul and the spirit world, led to the rise of Mesmerism, and the eclipse of Enlightenment science and questioning by darker movements, around the time of the French Revolution. Goethe’s Faust focalizes this growing tension, accumulated since the Renaissance, and exorcises it in the final apotheosis of its hero, a seeker after the arcane knowledge of the spirit world. Romanticism, and subsequent movements, examined these themes as literary subject-matter, establishing a certain distance between the mainstream, and esoteric beliefs and practices. This in turn provoked a reaction in the mid-19th century, with the rise of spiritism and table-turning. Aided by the advent of Positivism, it was now widely believed that the spirits could communicate with the living, and instruct us in their truths. Scientific progress should have shed new light on these mysteries. Ultimately, however, materialism triumphed – until the embrace of certain aspects of spiritism and the occult by the Surrealists, in the early 20th century, eager for news from the ‘other side’, knowledge of the inner mysteries of the self, and the practices that could reach and reveal them. SCIENCE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD

Co-produced by the the Garden of Science at the University of Strasbourg and the city’s Zoological Museum, this section is organised into four parts, exploring the evolving interface between the scientific community and mediums, and the latters’ contribution to new scientific research, discoveries and technologies. Visitors are greeted by a unique, highly curious object – Mesmer’s baquet, used in the celebrated German physician’s group experiments. Displays in the section take up a central theme: the encounter between the scholarly scientific and occult worlds.

A world of possibilitiesA world of possibilitiesA world of possibilitiesA world of possibilities The section explores the scientific world of the late 19th century: a community in a state of frenzied activity, as witnessed by populist publications like La nature, a bewildering array of new scientific instruments, and the discovery of new phenomena – in particular X rays and radioactivity – together with technologies like the telephone, the wireless telegraph or electric light bulbs. All these discoveries led to the creation of the instruments and machines presented here. Visitors are invited to enter the extraordinary world of 19th-century science and discover its fields of choice, such as the measurement and exploration of the infinitely small, using Crookes tubes, X ray tubes, instruments for the measurement of radioactivity, galvanometers, weighing scales, voltmeters, spherometers, photometers… Intriguing scientific objects, and artworks of seductive beauty in their own right.


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The humanThe humanThe humanThe human bodybodybodybody:::: a new experimental field a new experimental field a new experimental field a new experimental field The exhibition turns to the measurement of the human body and the infinitely small – a key precoccupation for scientists of the period. The displays explore the rise of the new science of physiology in the late 19th century, and the instrumentation developed by physiologists in their quest to understand and explain the functioning of the body’s organs.

Scientists and mediumsScientists and mediumsScientists and mediumsScientists and mediums Spiritist movements complemented the effervescent scientific scene, with celebrated mediums including Daniel Douglas Home, Eusapia Palladino and Eva Carrère (known as ‘Eva C.’). Their multiple ‘set pieces’ – including the levitation or displacement of objects, the emission of strange sounds, the production of ectoplasm, and the materialisation of the dead – fascinated scientists throughout Europe, including William Crookes, Pierre and Marie Curie, Camille Flammarion, Édouard Branly, Oliver Lodge, Charles Richet and Cesare Lombroso. The exhibition takes visitors into a recreation of a late 19th-century drawing room, the setting for a spiritist séance. Against a soundtrack of a reading of an eye-witness account by Camille Flammarion, visitors relive a séance held by medium Eusapia Palladino. The displays also feature some of the many instruments used in the attempt to shed light on these strange phenomena, through the capture and recording of their tiniest details. Medium Marthe Béraud’s séances at the Villa Carmen, including the apparition of a spirit by the name of Bien Boâ, are recalled in an amusing photograph taken by a privileged eye-witness, the physiologist Charles Richet. Richet was the father of ‘metaphysics’ (a term he coined in 1905), and won the Nobel prize for Physiology in 1913.

SSSScientific debate and affirmationcientific debate and affirmationcientific debate and affirmationcientific debate and affirmation The exhibition’s last section transports visitors to a period when science began to distance itself from the world of spiritism. Psychiatrists and psychologists rejected spiritism in the early 20th century, but the public at large embraced the movement with renewed enthusiasm, driven by the need and desire to communicate with the dead of the Great War. The French daily paper Le Matin took up the affair, highlighting contemporary controversies, interviews with scientists, and ‘medium competitions’ on its front pages. The interwar period in Europe was marked by the professionalization of a scientific community whose practices were founded on the development of so-called fundamental, laboratory-based research, as the legitimate sphere for the production of scientific knowledge. From the beginnings of public funding for laboratory research, to the creation of France’s national research organization, the CNRS, in 1939, science played an increasingly important role in the life of the modern nation state. France opened its first public museum of science – the Palais de la découverte – in 1937, confirming the prominence of science in the public and official imagination. The exhibition includes numerous photographs and illustrations testifying to these new manifestations of scientific ‘officialdom’. Instruments built on an increasingly impressive scale enabled scientists to explore the nature of matter, pushing back the boundaries of knowledge: a photograph by Robert Doisneau shows French nuclear chemist Frédéric Joliot standing next to his cyclotron. The exhibition ends with Frédéric Joliot’s reflections on the beneficial and destructive capacities of these new discoveries, and mankind’s unquenchable desire for progress.

H. Mairet, Séance avec Eusapia Palladino, chez Camille Flammarion, rue Cassini, 25 novembre 1898,

épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 22,2 x 26,3 cm, Paris, Société Astronomique de France, Fonds Camille Flammarion. Photo : © Rue des Archives/ The Granger Collection


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3333. . . . SSSStaging and designtaging and designtaging and designtaging and design Europe and the Spirit World or the fascination with the occult, 1750-1950 is installed in two

distinct spaces, at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg. Extending over more than 2,500 m2, the displays encompass the museum’s permanent contemporary collections, and its exhibition room. In defining these spaces, we have focused on the different disciplines represented by the 800 works on show in the exhibition’s three sections. The great diversity of featured objects and artworks demanded a tailored approach to the installation of a chronological itinerary punctuated by striking perspectives, set pieces, and effects of transparency.

The exhibition’s first section, focusing on the arts and literature, is installed in the museum’s four

first-floor galleries (usually home to the permanent contemporary collections). These galleries have been cleared of their permanent displays for the duration of the exhibition.

We were commissioned to design a structured space capable of providing a unified framework linking the section’s four chronological sequences. The section comprises some 450 works of widely differing types and scale, arranged in four chronological periods from the Romantics to the Symbolists, Abstraction and other avant-garde movements, and the Surrealists. Reflecting this, we have created a colourful, ‘proliferating’ structure designed to organize the exhibition itinerary across the whole of the first floor, guaranteeing the stylistic unity of the different galleries, and a sense of continuity between the different chronological periods.

The structure is deliberately ‘contained’ in relation to the surrounding space, measuring 3.09 metres in height, beneath an overall ceiling height of 6.70 metres. Beyond this, an upper register of transparent materials extends to the full height of the ceiling. The transparent, opalescent quality of the materials used reflects the exhibition’s essential atmosphere, and was an important starting-point for our response to the works displayed in this section of the show.

The two subsequent sections – History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and

images, and Science in the spirit world – are installed in the museum’ exhibition room. Here, too, chronology was a key structuring factor for the exhibition synopsis. The design comprises a continuous, unfolding sequence of display tables (for the scientific objects), and upright cases (for the literature).

Echoing the structure of the displays on the upper floor, the installations in the museum’s prints and drawings department are designed to promote the visitor’s smooth progress through the exhibition space, focusing attention on the works themselves.

Benoît Grafteaux & Richard KleinBenoît Grafteaux & Richard KleinBenoît Grafteaux & Richard KleinBenoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein architectes d.p.l.g.architectes d.p.l.g.architectes d.p.l.g.architectes d.p.l.g.

Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation XIV, 1910, huile sur toile, 74 x 125,5 cm, legs de Mme Nina Kandinsky Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d'art moderne / Centre de création industrielle © Collection Centre Pompidou,

Dist. RMN / Jean-Claude Planchet, © ADAGP Paris, 2011


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““““Arts and literatureArts and literatureArts and literatureArts and literature””””, 1st floor, , 1st floor, , 1st floor, , 1st floor, MAMCSMAMCSMAMCSMAMCS

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4444. . . . Lending institutionsLending institutionsLending institutionsLending institutions GermanyGermanyGermanyGermany • Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin • Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin • Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf • Frankfurter Goethe Museum, Freies Deutsches Hochstift, Frankfurt-am-Main • Goethe National Museum, Klassik Stiftung, Weimar • Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Freiburg • Fonds du Comité d’étude de photographie transcendantale, Freiburg • Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg • Wenzel Hablik Museum, Itzehoe • Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe • Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden • Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Marbach am Neckar • Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin AustriaAustriaAustriaAustria • Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen, Linz FranceFranceFranceFrance • Archives de la Ville et de la Communauté urbaine, Strasbourg • Médiathèque de la Ville et Communauté urbaine, André-Malraux, Strasbourg • Association de culture et muséographie scientifiques (AMUSS), Strasbourg • Université de Strasbourg • Bibliothèque nationale universitaire (BNU), Strasbourg • Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Paris • Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris • Musée du Louvre, Paris • Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris • Musée national Eugène Delacroix, Paris • Société Historique et Littéraire Polonaise / Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris • Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris • Centre Pompidou, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris • Musée Rodin, Paris • Musée d'Orsay, Paris • Musée des Beaux- Arts, Nantes • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Agen • Musées de Metz-Métropole - La Cour d'or, Metz • Musée d'art moderne, Saint-Etienne Métropole • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon • Musée- Jardin Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye • Musée de Grenoble • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rheims • Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambresis • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes • Musée Georges-Garret, Vesoul • Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue, Ministère de la Culture, Charenton-Le-Pont • Société française de photographie, Paris • LaM, Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Lille-Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq • Bibliothèque municipale Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Douai • Musée Goya, Castres • Musée des Augustins, Toulouse • Fondation Arp, Clamart


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• CNAM - Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris • Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris • Musée d'Histoire de la Médecine et de la Pharmacie, Lyon • Fonds Érik Satie- Archives de France/Archives IMEC, Saint-Germain-laBlanche Herbe • Médiathèque Victor Hugo, Fonds Yvan Goll, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges • Musée Curie, Paris • Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, Paris • Isidore Ducasse Fine Art, collection Daniel Filipacchi, Paris • Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris • Collection D. Hayter, Paris • Galerie Thessa Herold, Paris • Galerie Brimaud, Paris • Collection particulière, Paris • Collection Géraldine Galateau, Paris • Collection Alexandra Baranoff-Rossiné, Paris • Galerie Gérard Lévy, Paris • Collection Gérard Lévy, Paris • Collection Daniel Lévy, Paris • Collection Alexandre Lévy, Paris • Collection Rein, Paris • Collection Federica Matta, Paris • Collection Sirot-Angel, Paris United KingdomUnited KingdomUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom • The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge • The British Museum, London • Royal Academy of Arts, London • Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton • National Media Museum, Royal Photographic Society Collection, Bradford • The Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Gallery, London The NetherlandsThe NetherlandsThe NetherlandsThe Netherlands • Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo • Centraal Museum, Utrecht • Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam • Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam BelgiumBelgiumBelgiumBelgium • Musée provincial Félicien Rops, Namur • Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz • Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels • Triton Foundation, Gooreind-Wuustwezel • Communauté française de Belgique, Brussels • André Garitte Foundation, Antwerp-Brussels • Claudine Devoghelaere, Temse • Collection Sylvio Perlstein, Antwerp ItalyItalyItalyItaly • Musei Civici d'Arte e Storia di Brescia, Brescia • MART - Museo di Arte Moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto • Musei Civici, Treviso PortugalPortugalPortugalPortugal • CAM - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon • Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon


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SpainSpainSpainSpain • Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid • Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid • Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid

FinlandFinlandFinlandFinland • Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki • Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä SwedenSwedenSwedenSweden • Nationalmuseum, Stockholm • The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm • Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm EstoniaEstoniaEstoniaEstonia • Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn LatviaLatviaLatviaLatvia • The Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania • M.K Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas RussiaRussiaRussiaRussia • Galerie nationale Tretiakov, Moscow • Musée national Russe, Saint Petersburg

PolandPolandPolandPoland • Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Poznań HungaryHungaryHungaryHungary • Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest

SerbiaSerbiaSerbiaSerbia • Narodni Muzej, Belgrade RomaniaRomaniaRomaniaRomania • Muzeul NaŃional de Artă al României, Bucharest • Muzeul de Artă, Braşov • Muzeul de Artă Craoiva - Mihail Jean Palatul

GreeceGreeceGreeceGreece • State Museum of Contemporay Art, Costakis Collection, Thessalonika

SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland • Kunstmuseum, Dübi-Müller-Stiftung, Solothurn • Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich • Musées d'art et d'histoire de la Ville de Genève • Kunstmuseum Basel • Goetheanum, Dornach • Rudolf Steiner Archiv, Dornach • Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern • Musée du Petit Palais, Musée d’art moderne, Geneva • Collection de l'Art brut, Lausanne • Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur • Sturzenegger-Stiftung. Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen • Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen • Private collection, Geneva


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5555. . . . Exhibition publicationsExhibition publicationsExhibition publicationsExhibition publications EXHIBITION BROCHURE: Petit journal des Esprits, 3 euros Illustrated, 12pp colour brochure. Le Petit Journal des Esprits is a souvenir of the exhibition, and a guide to the displays, including reproductions of the featured masterpieces, portraits of major ‘enlightened artists’ and leading figures in the occult movement, plus background information on some of the exhibition’s chief ‘curiosities’, and little-known or distinctive artists. A chronological and contextual layout will give readers the keys to an understanding of the fruitful interaction between scientific developments, spiritualist theories and artistic movements throughout the 200-year period covered. CATALOGUE: L’Europe des esprits ou la fascination de l’occulte, 1750-1950 (‘Europe and the Spirit World or the Fascination with the Occult, 1750-1950’). Éditions des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg c. 450 pages. Price: 48 euros ISBN : 978-2-35125-092-1. Diffusion / Distribution: Le Seuil / Volumen A contributed volume edited by Serge Fauchereau

CONTENTS

Les sentiers infinis de l’imaginal, Daniel Bornemann, conservateur à la Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg L’invisible hanté, Baldung Grien – Cranach l’Ancien, Anny-Claire Haus, conservatrice du Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins de Strasbourg Souvent dans l’être obscur, Daniel Payot, philosophe

I.I.I.I. Les romantiques et l’occulteLes romantiques et l’occulteLes romantiques et l’occulteLes romantiques et l’occulte L’Europe de l’obscur, Serge Fauchereau La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs. Sciences, croyances et peinture dans l’Allemagne romantique, Roland Recht Goya et la tradition noire dans la peinture espagnole, Antonio Bonet Correa Carl Frederik Hill et Ernst Josephson, Olle Granath

II.II.II.II. SymbolismesSymbolismesSymbolismesSymbolismes Intervention des esprits, Serge Fauchereau Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Osvaldas Daugelis Édouard Schuré, Laurence Perry Tout homme est un danseur, Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot

III.III.III.III. Abstractions et autres expressions d’avantAbstractions et autres expressions d’avantAbstractions et autres expressions d’avantAbstractions et autres expressions d’avant----gardegardegardegarde L’irrationnel 1900, Serge Fauchereau Les avant-gardes et les dispositifs de l’ésotérisme, Christoph Wagner Arp et la naturo-sophie, Estelle Pietrzyk La métamorphose médiumnique chez Paul Klee, Osamu Okuda

IV.IV.IV.IV. Constellations surréalistesConstellations surréalistesConstellations surréalistesConstellations surréalistes La magie moderne, Serge Fauchereau « Cette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnu », Annie Le Brun « Entrée des médiums », Art brut et spiritisme ?, Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot Jeanne Tripier, Lucienne Peiry Helene Smith, Savine Faupin V.V.V.V. Quand la science mesurait les espritsQuand la science mesurait les espritsQuand la science mesurait les espritsQuand la science mesurait les esprits Quand la science mesurait les esprits, Sébastien Soubiran et Marie-Dominique Wandhammer William Crookes. Un scientifique amoureux d’un fantôme ?, Anne Lagaisse Camille Flammarion. À la recherche des forces inconnues, Anne Lagaisse Pierre et Marie Curie. Rencontre entre un couple de savants et un médium, Anne Lagaisse Photographie, sciences et occultisme : entre authentification, mystification et création, Héloïse Conésa


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EXTRACTS Intervention des espritsIntervention des espritsIntervention des espritsIntervention des esprits, par Serge FAUCHEREAU, par Serge FAUCHEREAU, par Serge FAUCHEREAU, par Serge FAUCHEREAU La croyance en des forces occultes, bénéfiques ou maléfiques, environnant l’homme est certainement aussi ancienne que l’humanité elle-même, et, avec elle, le désir de s’en concilier l’une ou l’autre pour en tirer quelque avantage. On a aussi expliqué par la crainte des hommes devant des phénomènes qu’ils ne comprenaient pas, tels que la mort ou le déchaînement des éléments, leur foi en des dieux ou des puissances cachées comme autant de secrets que ne peut manquer de recéler la nature. Étant enfants, avons-nous eu le gout du mystère et des cachotteries! Avons-nous joué à avoir peur avec délice ! Si tout cela avait entièrement disparu en nous, n’aurions-nous pas perdu une précieuse part de rêve inhérente à la condition humaine? Les diverses avancées scientifiques et technologiques n’y ont heureusement rien changé et n’y changeront rien. La croyance qu’il existe autre chose au-delà de la mort et du monde sensible, quelque chose qu’on craint, qu’on adore ou qu’on veut diriger, remonte loin dans le temps, dans toutes les civilisations, sous toutes les latitudes, comme en témoignent les plus anciennes gravures rupestres et les premiers textes sacrés. Ceux qui, par révélation ou par conviction, en savent plus long que d’autres sur ces sujets, ont estimé que ces secrets ne pouvaient être révélés qu’avec mesure ; de là la difficulté et l’obscurité des ouvrages mêmes qui prétendent à une certaine divulgation, mais qui sont indispensables, car tout secret comme tout savoir ésotérique doit rester communicable à un nombre restreint d’initiés. Si ces initiés sont suffisamment nombreux et grégaires, on les désigne peut-être comme une secte ou une société plus ou moins secrète. On a longtemps trouvé logique qu’au siècle classique du Roi soleil succède le siècle des Lumières. Avec le recul du temps, on constate que ce n’était pourtant qu’une lumière lunaire et trouble, car à Voltaire et Lavoisier répondaient Swedenborg et Cagliostro, face obscure et pourtant réelle du changeant XVIIIe siècle. Avec ses authentiques chercheurs, ses illuminés et ses charlatans, cette époque qui commençait à échapper au contrôle rassurant des religions en place a développé une inquiétude et une fascination pour ce qui lui était incompréhensible et pour un au-delà depuis toujours conjectural. La science n’y suffisant pas, que n’interrogera-t-on pas ? Les astres, la pratique alchimique, les voyants, les tarots, les tables tournantes par lesquelles parlent les esprits… Poursuivie au siècle suivant, cette interrogation existe encore jusqu’aujourd’hui selon d’autres modalités. La présente exposition s’attache aux relations des arts et de la littérature avec les croyances au surnaturel, à la magie et avec diverses formes de l’ésotérisme, de 1750 à 1950, en Europe. Qu’il s’agisse de créations de Baldung-Grien, Goya, Victor Hugo ou Camille Flammarion, les œuvres impliquent une curiosité, une connaissance des hypothèses et des sciences ésotériques, voire une adhésion de leur auteur. Notre sujet n’est ni le fantastique ni la fantaisie, ni le rêve et l’inconscient, ni les vieilles superstitions, bien qu’il les recoupe parfois. S’excluent de ce champ, quelque soit leur qualité, le conte bleu ou édifiant (Blanche-Neige des frères Grimm), la satire (peintures carnavalesques d’Ensor), le témoignage clinique (le Horla de Maupassant), le récit d’horreur pour l’horreur (Lovecraft, d’ailleurs géographiquement hors sujet), les allégories conventionnelles (un squelette brandissant une faux est moins troublant que la mort selon Malczewski)… On n’a retenu ni le merveilleux ni les miracles des religions établies mais éventuellement ce qui en était un détournement pervers (les messes noires ou le Golem). Faust, donc, et non Lobatchevski, Blake, et non Piranese, Brauner, et non Magritte. Même avec plusieurs centaines d’œuvres et d’objets, il était évidemment impossible d’être exhaustif, pour évoquer deux siècles de sujets autour desquels l’ombre et l’ambiguïté ont été voulus. Choisis à titre d’exemples et laissés à l’appréciation du visiteur, leur présence n’implique aucun jugement de valeur […]. Les sentiers infinis de l'imaginalLes sentiers infinis de l'imaginalLes sentiers infinis de l'imaginalLes sentiers infinis de l'imaginal, par , par , par , par Daniel BORNEMANNDaniel BORNEMANNDaniel BORNEMANNDaniel BORNEMANN Le mythe d'Isis et d'Osiris témoigne d'une réflexion plus détaillée sur le devenir des esprits dans la mort. Isis, fille du ciel et de la terre, issue du dieu Râ, sœur et épouse d'Osiris, donne au Nil son rythme et à l’Égypte son existence. Assassiné et dépecé par Seth, Osiris est rendu à la vie par Isis qui devient une maternelle déesse des soins ainsi qu'une magicienne. Isis inspirera la poésie et la fiction, sera assimilée à Demeter et à la Vierge Marie, et ses liens avec Thoth, dieu magicien présent auprès d'elle lorsqu'elle soigne Osiris, ses liens avec Anubis, également présent, la rapprochent du monde des morts et lui confèrent ce rôle de détentrice des mystères postérieurs à la vie. Isis viendra par la suite habiter le monde romain. Sa figure voilée inspire nombre d'écrivains et rêveurs occidentaux jusqu'à nos jours. Le Livre des morts, ce texte qui guide l'âme du défunt durant la traversée de la mort qui l'amènera à « ressortir au jour », enseigne la méthode qui permet d'éviter l'anéantissement de l'être. Ce texte peut être sculpté sur les parois des tombeaux ou des temples, peint sur les sarcophages, ou écrit sur des rouleaux de papyrus. Il fut en usage durant plus de seize siècles et son texte n'est pas figé. L’Égypte a engendré bien d'autres figures fondatrices de l'ésotérisme occidental, en particulier la figure d'Hermès Trismégiste, « trois fois grand ». Celui-ci aurait été engendré par le fils de Thoth, Agathodémon, et on lui attribue entre autres


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écrits la Table d'Émeraude. L'hermétisme est une première synthèse des apports précédents. Hermès serait lui-même Thoth, qui est aussi le secrétaire des dieux et qui consigne par écrit les vérités divines et les transmet. Il y a une coalescence entre Hermès Trismégiste, Hénoch, Moïse, le passé païen, mazdéen, judéo-chrétien et même avec l'Islam par Idris, prophète qui a le privilège d'entrer vivant et en pleine conscience au paradis, et qui n'en revient plus. Qu'en est-il de la Table d'Émeraude ? C'est un écrit composite, dont la brièveté initiale, qui lui permettait peut-être de tenir sur un très petit espace, peut-être gravé sur une pierre précieuse, en une seule formule lapidaire, s'est augmentée de plusieurs traités dont le Poïmandre et l'Asclepios. L'hermétisme est une certaine compréhension du monde qui, avec l'apport ultérieur de la kabbale chrétienne et du rosicrucianisme, est une forme essentielle de l'ésotérisme occidental moderne. L'idée de la nature divine de l'homme, de sa Chute, et de la possibilité de sa « réintégration » ou remontée progressive des échelons en est l'essentiel. […] Souvent dans l’être obscur…Souvent dans l’être obscur…Souvent dans l’être obscur…Souvent dans l’être obscur…, par Daniel PAYOT, par Daniel PAYOT, par Daniel PAYOT, par Daniel PAYOT

« Souvent dans l’être obscur habite un Dieu caché ; Et comme un œil naissant couvert par ses paupières,

Un pur esprit s’accroît sous l’écorce des pierres. »

Gérard de Nerval, « Vers dorés », Les Chimères.

La deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle propose une grande alternative autour de la métaphore de la lumière. La clarté invoquée est souvent celle de la raison, de la méthode et de l’analyse, de l’adéquation de moyens scientifiques et techniques et de fins sociales, morales et politiques, du progrès ; elle est aussi parfois celle de la révélation de vérités enfouies, cachées ou oubliées, celle de l’initiation conduisant à une régénération cosmique, de la réparation d’une union mystique brisée, d’une spiritualité faisant paradoxalement de l’occulte le lieu d’une luminosité ineffable.

Ces deux grandes versions s’opposent sur bien des points, mais elles ont aussi sans doute des motivations communes. En pensant à des auteurs aussi différents que Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin ou Jean-Baptiste Villermoz en France, les préromantiques, Graveyard Poets ou romanciers du Gothic Novel en Grande-Bretagne, Lessing, Herder et le jeune Goethe et même le Schiller des Lettres sur l’éducation esthétiques de l’homme en Allemagne, on est frappé par la proximité des constats, même si les voies suggérées sont incontestablement dissemblables. Le motif est très fréquent de la séparation, de la blessure d’une humanité amputée, éloignée de ses vérités ou de ses potentialités essentielles, condamnée à une condition de finitude bornée, et cette description est porteuse, en creux ou de façon déclarée, d’un désir ou d’une promesse de réconciliation, de complétude retrouvée ou reconquise, voire de dépassement d’un état accidentellement ou arbitrairement mutilé et de restauration de l’humanité dans ses droits infinis ou dans sa ressemblance ontologique avec l’être absolu. À la fin du siècle des Lumières et de l’Aufklärung, l’idée se répand ainsi largement d’un état de scission faisant naître, par contrecoup, une aspiration à la réunification, à la reconstitution de l’harmonie et de la totalité brisées. C’est sur ce socle commun que se construisent des perspectives divergentes, voire explicitement opposées ; il est frappant de constater qu’au moment même où certains penseurs désignent les pouvoirs de la connaissance, de l’intellect et de l’analyse comme les moyens les mieux à même de restreindre l’emprise de l’obscur, du préjugé et de l’aveuglement, d’autres voient au contraire dans les facultés du cœur et de l’intime, sentiment et sensibilité, la disposition seule capable de surmonter le déchirement de l’humanité moderne et d’assurer le dépassement de sa condition finie. À l’analyse, perçue comme force de décomposition, de désagrégation, de froide, voire arbitraire dissolution, est alors opposée l’intuition, force intérieure, immédiate, atteignant en chaque chose son essence et sa vérité, à la fois ce en quoi elle constitue une unité et un tout et ce par quoi cette unité et ce tout répondent au grand Un et au grand Tout du monde conçu comme cosmos, comme macrocosme. […] La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs.La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs.La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs.La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs. Sciences, croyances et peinture dans Sciences, croyances et peinture dans Sciences, croyances et peinture dans Sciences, croyances et peinture dans l’Allemagne romantiquel’Allemagne romantiquel’Allemagne romantiquel’Allemagne romantique, , , , parparparpar Roland RECHRoland RECHRoland RECHRoland RECHTTTT La prétention des Lumières d’offrir à l’humanité la liberté et l’éducation, à la faire accéder à l’âge adulte de l’esprit humain comme le demandait Kant, va de pair avec le rejet de tout ce qui contrarie la Raison. D’un autre côté, les progrès accomplis dans les sciences attestent de plus en plus fortement de la perfectibilité de l’homme. Mais au fur et à mesure que le nombre de certitudes scientifiques augmente chez le savant, chez le profane elles ont pour effet de donner libre cours aux caprices de l’imagination. Les adeptes de l’occultisme comme du mysticisme, d’autant plus nombreux qu’ils se recrutent également chez certains savants authentiques, sont alors en quête d’une réalité spirituelle située au-delà des apparences sensibles. La croyance dans le supranaturel et la fuite dans l’irrationnel répondent sans doute


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à l’inquiétude que font naître les menaces pesant simultanément, au XVIIIe siècle, sur l’autorité de l’Église, sur celle de l’État et, non la moindre, sur l’autorité de l’ancienne science. L’esprit frappeur Les critiques ne manquent pas à l’encontre du règne exclusif de l’imagination qui menace le « rêveur éveillé », selon Kant. Le philosophe s’en prend plus particulièrement au suédois Emanuel Swedenborg saisi, à la suite d’une carrière scientifique brillante, par une crise mystique. Après avoir étudié le mouvement des planètes, le fonctionnement du cerveau ou des glandes endocrines, Swedenborg se consacre dorénavant à la description de ses entretiens avec les esprits et les âmes défuntes. Tout en reconnaissant que « la folie et l’entendement ont des frontières (bien) mal tracées », Kant voit cependant dans les jeux de l’imagination dont est victime Swedenborg, l’équivalent de ce que les collectionneurs trouvent dans les jeux de la nature, « par exemple dans le marbre veiné la Sainte Famille, ou, dans la formation de stalagmites ou de stalactites, des moines, des fonts baptismaux et des orgues. » Le plus acerbe de tous les savants et philosophes du XVIIIe siècle, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, estime, tout comme Kant, que l’on peut trouver des explications rationnelles aux histoires de fantômes. Les mystères que recèle la nature sont nombreux, mais nous ne leur accordons généralement aucune attention : ils ne se distinguent entre eux que par des degrés, et l’homme les évalue en fonction de la plus ou moins grande familiarité qu’il entretient avec eux. Car, en réalité, nous devrions tout aussi bien nous étonner que la balle lancée en l’air par l’enfant retombe au lieu de poursuivre son mouvement vers le ciel. En s’interrogeant sur l’origine de l’« esprit frappeur » (Poltergeist), Lichtenberg conclut : « Qu’est-ce finalement qu’un esprit ? La superstition répond : une créature qui vers minuit rôde autour des hommes pour les effrayer ; et la raison répond : quelque chose qui m’est cent fois plus incompréhensible que tout ce qui fait du tapage et du frappage dans le monde entier. » […] «««« Cette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnuCette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnuCette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnuCette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnu »»»», par , par , par , par Annie LEBRUNAnnie LEBRUNAnnie LEBRUNAnnie LEBRUN « Il se peut que la vie demande à être décryptée comme un cryptogramme », telle est l’interrogation qui traverse Nadja d’un bout à l’autre pour en devenir la frémissante armature qui, seule, résiste à ce splendide naufrage. Aussi, à mesure que grandit l’implication politique des surréalistes dans les années qui suivent, il n’est pas aussi paradoxal qu’on pourrait le croire de voir se renforcer leur intérêt pour la pensée « traditionnelle ». Si tant est, en effet, que dès 1920 André Breton se réclame du Grand-Œuvre dans sa présentation d’Aloysius Bertrand, qu’en 1923, il a l’intention de consacrer un article à l’alchimiste Corneille Agrippa, cité avec Nicolas Flamel, Lulle et Hermès trismégiste, parmi les références de « Erutaréttil », qu’en 1924, avec le premier Manifeste, il reconnaît la voix surréaliste dans celle de « Cumes, Dodone et Delphes » , sans oublier la curiosité que ses amis portent à tous les modes de penser non rationnels, force est de le constater : quelles que soient les luttes immédiates et la nécessité évidente de combattre l’iniquité sociale, quelque chose n’a cessé de cheminer souterrainement qui vient éclairer de l’intérieur le Second manifeste, pour se révéler en être le noyau irradiant. À ce point que Breton insiste: « Je demande qu’on veuille bien observer que les recherches surréalistes présentent avec les recherches alchimiques , une remarquable analogie de but : la pierre philosophale n’est rien autre que ce qui devait permettre à l’imagination de l’homme de prendre sur toutes choses une revanche éclatante et nous voici de nouveau, après des siècles de domestication de l’esprit et de résignation folle, à tenter d’affranchir définitivement cette imagination par le long, immense, raisonné dérèglement de tous les sens et le reste. » « Remarquable analogie » qu’au cours des années précédentes, les uns et les autres, poètes ou peintres, Crevel, Desnos, Leiris, Naville, Masson, Ernst… , se seront émerveillés à découvrir, plus ou moins consciemment. Et si Breton ne manque pas de se référer à l’ « alchimie du verbe » voulue par Rimbaud, en demandant avec insistance que désormais ces mots soient pris à la lettre, il souligne, en même temps, que ses compagnons et lui se trouvent peut-être dans la même situation que Flamel ornant ses murs de figures « avant qu’il eût trouvé son premier agent, sa ‘‘matière’’, son ‘‘fourneau’’ », dans la mesure où ces étranges images par leur force d’énigme ne sont pas sans évoquer, Breton y insiste, « le tableau surréaliste ». […] Photographie, sciences et occultismePhotographie, sciences et occultismePhotographie, sciences et occultismePhotographie, sciences et occultisme : entre authentification, mystification: entre authentification, mystification: entre authentification, mystification: entre authentification, mystification et création et création et création et création, , , , parparparpar Héloïse Héloïse Héloïse Héloïse CONÉSACONÉSACONÉSACONÉSA

[…]Le milieu du XIXe siècle marqué par le positivisme d’Auguste Comte, coexiste avec l’essor du spiritisme théorisé par Alan Kardec. À ses côtés, de nombreux savants cherchent à établir une vision scientifique de la communication avec les esprits. Ainsi, en 1869, lors de l’oraison funèbre à Alan Kardec, Camille Flammarion déclare : « le spiritisme n’est pas une religion mais une science-science dont nous connaissons à peine l’ABC ». Quant au chimiste et physicien William Crookes, il va expérimenter différents outils d’analyse, lors des séances animées par le médium Daniel Dunglas Home.


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Dans ce contexte, la photographie joue un rôle prédominant en offrant la garantie de l’impartialité mécanique là où l’œil humain pouvait être défaillant. C’est un auxiliaire du progrès des connaissances dans le domaine des sciences, « la véritable rétine du savant », pour reprendre la formule de l’astronome Jules Janssen, et l’outil par excellence de l’accès à l’invisible, ainsi que le montre Arago dans son analyse du spectre solaire. Parlant du même spectre solaire et des rayons invisibles laissant une trace sur du papier sensible, Talbot s’émerveille de ce que : « l’œil de l’appareil photographique verrait clairement là où l’œil humain ne verrait que ténèbres ». Fortes de ce constat d’une possible captation par la photographie de l’invisible, certaines sociétés secrètes voient là l’opportunité de prouver l’existence des esprits. À Londres, dès 1872, les photographes Frederick Hudson puis John Beattie produisent des clichés des esprits qui apparaissent sous forme de spectres lumineux. C’est aussi ce que révèlent les images prises à Paris par Édouard Isidore Buguet, chargé par Pierre Gaëtan Leymarie, rédacteur en chef et directeur de la Revue Spirite, d’objectiver les indices de la présence des esprits. […]

Albrecht Dürer, Le Chevalier, la Mort et le Diable, 1513,

gravure au burin, 24,4 x 18,7 cm, Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins. Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg


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6666. Serge Fauchereau . Serge Fauchereau . Serge Fauchereau . Serge Fauchereau Serge Fauchereau taught American literature at New York University and the University of Texas, before taking up a post as curator of major temporary exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (Paris-New York, Paris-Berlin, Paris-Moscou, Les Réalismes, and others). He has also curated exhibitions in Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain, and continues to pursue his parallel career as a writer. He has taught visual art at the Institut des Hautes Etudes, and is a member of the European arts commission in Brussels. He is the author of more than 40 works, with Editions Cercle d’Art and others, including twenty monographs (mostly translated and published outside France) on artists including Braque, Arp, Kupka, Nils Dardel, Léger, Mondrian, Chabaud, Chaissac, De Chirico and Savinio, Rancillac and Malevitch. He has also written and/or contributed to over 100 exhibition catalogues and contributed scholarly works. PRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONSPRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONSPRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONSPRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONS 1977197719771977 Paris-New York, 1908-1968, Centre Georges Pompidou 1978197819781978 Paris-Berlin. Rapports et contrastes France-Allemagne, Centre Georges Pompidou 1979197919791979 Paris-Moscou 1900-1930, Centre Georges Pompidou 1980198019801980 Les Réalismes, 1919-1939, Centre Georges Pompidou 1981198119811981 Moscow-Paris, Pushkin Museum, Moscow 1983198319831983 Présences polonaises, Centre Georges Pompidou 1986198619861986 Futurismo e Futurismi, Palazzo Grassi, Venice

1994199419941994 Europa-Europa, Kunsthalle, Bonn 1998199819981998----1999199919991999 Forjar el espacio, CAAM Las Palmas, Ivam Valencia, Musée de Calais 2001200120012001 Century City, Tate Modern, London 2004200420042004 Mexique-Europe, Musée d’Art moderne, Villeneuve d’Ascq Bruno Schulz, Musée d’Art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris 2005200520052005 German Cueto, Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. 2006200620062006 Arp: retropectiva, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid 2007200720072007 Pierre Klossowski integral, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHYSELECT BIBLIOGRAPHYSELECT BIBLIOGRAPHYSELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

La fin des avant-gardes, Paris: Flammarion, 2012 Avant-gardes du XXe siècle, arts & littérature 1905-1930, Paris: Flammarion, 2010 Les petits âges, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2007 Gaston Chaissac à côté de l’Art brut, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2007 Hommes et mouvements esthétiques du XXe siècle, Paris: Cercle d’art, 2005 Le Livre idolâtre de Bruno Schulz, Paris: Denoël, 2004 Auguste Chabaud : époque fauve, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2002 L’Art abstrait, Paris: Cercle d’art, 2001 Expressionnisme, dada, surréalisme et autres ismes, Paris: Denoël, 1976, 2001 Čiurlionis, par exemple, Champigny-sur-Marne: Digraphe, 1996 Mondrian et l'utopie néo-plastique, Paris: Albin Michel, 1995 Sur les pas de Brancusi, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1995 Fernand Léger peintre dans la cité, Paris: Albin Michel, 1994 Peintures et dessins d’écrivains, Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1991 Kazimir Malévitch, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1991 Philippe Soupault, voyageur magnétique, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1988 Arp, Paris: Albin Michel, 1988 Kupka, Paris: Albin Michel, 1988 Moscou, 1900-1930, Paris: Le Seuil, 1988 Les Peintres révolutionnaires mexicains, Paris: Messidor, 1985 La révolution cubiste, Paris: Denoël, 1982, 2012 Philippe Soupault : vingt mille et un jours : entretiens avec Serge Fauchereau, Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1980 L’avant-garde russe, Paris : Pierre Belfond, 1979, éditions du murmure, 2003 Lecture de la poésie américaine, Paris: Minuit, 1968; Somogy, 1998


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7777. . . . Cultural and schools events programmeCultural and schools events programmeCultural and schools events programmeCultural and schools events programme For full details (dates and times): www.musees.strasbourg.eu GUIDED VISITSGUIDED VISITSGUIDED VISITSGUIDED VISITS :::: Sunday, and during late-night opening on Thursday.

MEET THE CURATORSMEET THE CURATORSMEET THE CURATORSMEET THE CURATORS : : : : Visit and discussion with the curators, Wednesday (tours are held on alternate weeks in the following sections: History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and pictures and Science in the spirit world.) UNE HEURE UNE HEURE UNE HEURE UNE HEURE ////UNE ŒUVREUNE ŒUVREUNE ŒUVREUNE ŒUVRE In-depth, one-hour commentary on an individual artwork, object, artist or technique… Friday at 12.30 p.m. 14 and 21 October, 18 and 25 November, 9 and 16 December, 13 and 20 January, 3 and 10 February And on one Thursday and Wednesday lunchtime at the Musée Archéologique, 13 and 20 October, and at the Musée Historique, 10 and 16 November. LE LE LE LE TEMPS D’UNE RENCONTRETEMPS D’UNE RENCONTRETEMPS D’UNE RENCONTRETEMPS D’UNE RENCONTRE The exhibition curators, curators at the Musées de Strasbourg, and their guests, share their personal favourite works, themes, artists, galleries and techniques. Late-night opening, Thursday 20 October, 24 November, 15 December AUDIO AUDIO AUDIO AUDIO GUIDE GUIDE GUIDE GUIDE Audio guides in three languages (French, German, English) offer extended commentary on 40 artworks and important objects chosen and discussed by the exhibition’s chief curators (Serge Fauchereau, art historian, and Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot, director, Musées de Strasbourg), the scientific curators (Marie-Dominique Wandhammer, curator, Musée Zoologique and Sébastien Soubiran, doctor in the history of science and director of museum policy at the Jardin des Sciences - Université de Strasbourg), and the curators of literary works, prints and drawings (Anny-Claire Haus, curator, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins and Daniel Bornemann, curator, BNU). WORKSHOPSWORKSHOPSWORKSHOPSWORKSHOPS Adult workshopsAdult workshopsAdult workshopsAdult workshops Late-night opening, Thursday Workshops will continue the theme of the previous Friday’s talk in the series Une heure – une œuvre. Teatime workshops for children aged 4Teatime workshops for children aged 4Teatime workshops for children aged 4Teatime workshops for children aged 4----6666, Wednesday and Saturday L’enfant et les sortileges – ‘Magic spells for kids’ ‘Look and learn’ workshop, for children aged 7‘Look and learn’ workshop, for children aged 7‘Look and learn’ workshop, for children aged 7‘Look and learn’ workshop, for children aged 7----12, 12, 12, 12, Saturday Esprit, es-tu là ? – ‘Is there anybody there?’ Savants fous ! – ‘Mad scientists!’ WORKSHOPS FOR THE SCHOOOL HOLIDAYSWORKSHOPS FOR THE SCHOOOL HOLIDAYSWORKSHOPS FOR THE SCHOOOL HOLIDAYSWORKSHOPS FOR THE SCHOOOL HOLIDAYS October/November halfOctober/November halfOctober/November halfOctober/November half----termtermtermterm: : : : Teens/adultTeens/adultTeens/adultTeens/adults s s s Graver ses caprices – print-making workshop in association with the École des arts décoratifs, based on Goya’s Caprichos. 7/7/7/7/12 12 12 12 yearsyearsyearsyears Spectres, fantômes, esprits… j’en fais mon affaire! – ‘Who’s afraid of spectres, ghosts, and phantoms?’ Christmas holidaysChristmas holidaysChristmas holidaysChristmas holidays Children aged 4 and upChildren aged 4 and upChildren aged 4 and upChildren aged 4 and up Fées et sorcières – ‘Fairies and witches’ FAMILY ACTIVITIESFAMILY ACTIVITIESFAMILY ACTIVITIESFAMILY ACTIVITIES Family visits (Family visits (Family visits (Family visits (itinerary itinerary itinerary itinerary including allincluding allincluding allincluding all museums involved in t museums involved in t museums involved in t museums involved in the exhibition)he exhibition)he exhibition)he exhibition) Des mondes étranges au musée – ‘Strange worlds at the museum’ Sunday, 3 p.m.

Storytelling sessionsStorytelling sessionsStorytelling sessionsStorytelling sessions in the section Science in the spirit world. One Wednesday and Sunday per month.


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EVENTSEVENTSEVENTSEVENTS:::: Competition: Competition: Competition: Competition: Les Mystères de l’IlLes Mystères de l’IlLes Mystères de l’IlLes Mystères de l’Illlll in association with the Festival Européen du Film Fantastique, from 11 September to 23 October: a ‘treasure trail’ through some of Strasbourg’s more unusual, off-beat locations. Win a trip to Edinburgh, including visits to the city’s famous haunted sites!

Hallow’eeHallow’eeHallow’eeHallow’eennnn night night night night, Thursday 27 October, an evening with Nicolas Ullman including nocturnal visits in the company of mediums, a ‘spirit cabaret’, occult face-painting, competition prize draw, and a set by DJ Château Flight.

Paparraz’artPaparraz’artPaparraz’artPaparraz’art student nightstudent nightstudent nightstudent night Friday 2 December, at the museum

Mardi grasMardi grasMardi grasMardi gras Wednesday, 8 February, Petite danse macabre entre amis – ‘A little Danse Macarbre among friends’, in association with local schools (children aged 11/12 and up). AT THE STRASBOURG MUSEUMS AUDITORIUMAT THE STRASBOURG MUSEUMS AUDITORIUMAT THE STRASBOURG MUSEUMS AUDITORIUMAT THE STRASBOURG MUSEUMS AUDITORIUM:::: A major programme of films, lectures and concerts at the Auditorium des Musées, reflecting key artistic and scientific topics explored in the exhibition Europe and the Spirit World.

Le Cinéma des esprits: a season of 16 films including early film, and work by major directors, in association with the Festival européen du film fantastique de Strasbourg and the Star cinema. The programme features little-known masterpieces of occult cinema, including Henrik Galeen’s The Student of Prague, and Viktor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage.

Echoing the exhibition’s cross-disciplinary approach, a number of films will be screened as live concerts: DJ Château Flight will accompany Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires, and Fritz Lang’s The Three Lights will feature a live, electro-acoustic, surround soundtrack by Thilo Hirsch, Abril Padilla and Paul Clouvel.

Accompanying the exhibition, a programme of live concerts will feature music by major composers including Claude Debussy, Mikolajus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Arnold Schönberg.

Other events include lectures, literary evenings, a study day exploring myths and legends in the work of Mircea Eliade, and more – organized in association with Vidéo les Beaux Jours, France’s national Journées de l’architecture, the INA, the Franco-German TV channel ARTE, Opéra Studio and Elektramusic. EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLDEUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLDEUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLDEUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD AT AT AT AT AUBETTE 1928 AUBETTE 1928 AUBETTE 1928 AUBETTE 1928 From 10 December to 28 January, the spirit world comes to Aubette 1928, with a strange sound installation occupying the Salle des fêtes, featuring four specially-commissioned works presented in association with Radio en Construction. At the same time, the ciné-dancing will feature screenings of short films on the theme of the bizarre and the occult, by a wide range of directors from Méliès to Apichatpong Weerasetakul.

ScreeningScreeningScreeningScreeningssss:::: 9999----10101010----11 11 11 11 DecemberDecemberDecemberDecember The birth of cinema (Méliès 1) 16161616----17171717----18181818 DecemberDecemberDecemberDecember The birth of cinema (Méliès 2) 6666----7777 January January January January Invitation to the dance 14141414----15151515 JanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuary Cinema today 20202020----21212121 JanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuary Apichatpong Weerasetakul

Radio en construction comes to L’Aubette 1928 for a special live broadcast on Sunday 11 December, Sunday 11 December, Sunday 11 December, Sunday 11 December, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.,from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.,from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.,from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., devoted to the exhibition Europe and the Spirit World. The broadcast will explore the exhibition’s key themes, featuring live performances, sound works and interviews with invited guests from the world of contemporary art.

Paul-Elie Ranson, Les Sorcières autour du feu, 1891, huile sur toile, 38 x 65 cm, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental Maurice Denis « Le Prieuré ». Crédit : Y. Tribes


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8888. . . . A coA coA coA co----production with Bernproduction with Bernproduction with Bernproduction with Bern’s Zentrum’s Zentrum’s Zentrum’s Zentrum Paul Klee Paul Klee Paul Klee Paul Klee

On 20 June, 2005, the Zentrum Paul Klee opened its doors to visitors from around the world. The centre is wholly dedicated to the life, personality and work of Paul Klee (1879–1940) – musician, educationalist, poet, and one of the 20th century’s most important painters. Klee spent almost half his life in the city of Bern, which is now the proud host of a renowned, influential art centre in his honour.

The centre is home to around 40 per cent of the 10,000 artworks created by Klee, including 4,000 paintings, watercolours and drawings, together with archive material and biographical documents. The centre is widely recognized as the home of the world’s largest monographic collection of work by a renowned international artist.

Respecting the vision of its founder, Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller, the Zentrum Paul Klee is not a traditional art museum: it aims to become the leading international centre of expertise and research on the personality, life and work of Paul Klee, and a seed-bed for initiatives to promote the man and his work to the widest possible public.

Inspired by Paul Klee’s own cross-disciplinary approach, the centre functions not only as a gallery space for paintings and works on paper, but also as a platform for a wide range of artforms and expressive media.

The museum building – by renowned, award-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano – is equally unconventional. Based on an initial, in-depth study, the complex structure occupies a site to the east of the city of Bern: a vast ‘island’ of greenery incorporating a building in the form of three mounds, conceived as an integral part of the natural topography of its setting. This extraordinary work of landscape sculpture is a major cultural attraction in its own right.

The centre’s cross-disciplinary programme is presented inside the building’s three steel-and-glass mounds. The museum complex features superb exhibition spaces, together with an auditorium for concerts and other performances, with state-of-the-art audio and video equipment for the museum’s schedule of events and musical guest appearances. The complex also includes a children’s museum for ages 4 and up, introducing children to the world of art through creative activities and an open-space area fitted with communications terminals. International conference facilities include a state-of-the-art amphitheatre and seminar rooms.

The centre functions not only as a showcase for the visual arts, music, theatre, dance, literature, art research and outreach, but also as a vibrant forum for cross-disciplinary dialogue and exchange – an incubator for new expressive art forms, and a fascinating, lively public venue.

The 125 million CHF needed for the design and building of this exceptional cultural centre was secured through public funding and donations from private indviduals: the Klee family, the family of the centre’s founder – the internationally renowned orthopaedic surgeon Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller – his wife Martha Müller-Lüthi, private collectors and sponsors.

The aim – central to the founding vision of Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller – is not to create a museum of Paul Klee’s work, but a vibrant cultural centre reflecting the artist’s essential, cross-disciplinary approach.

The exhibition Europe and the Spirit World will be presented at the Zentrum Paul Klee from March 31st to July 12th, 2012.


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9999. . . . Exhibition partnersExhibition partnersExhibition partnersExhibition partners THE MUSEUMS OF STRASBOURG Strasbourg’s network of 10 public museums are a major force in the city’s status as an influential cultural centre at the heart of Europe, upholding a 200-year tradition of access to heritage, and openness to new forms of artistic expression. Together, they include the three museums housed in the Palais Rohan, itself one of France’s great architectural treasures: the Museum of fine-arts, with its collection of superb Old Master paintings, the Museum of decorative arts (decoration and 18th-century objets d’art), and the Archeological Museum (one of the region’s most complete and representative archaeological collections). Plus one of the finest museums of Rhineland art from the Middle Ages to the 17th century (the Museum Œuvre de Notre-Dame), the world’s most important collection of Alsatian folk art and traditions (the Historical Museum), the heritage collection of the City Strasbourg (the Tomi Ungerer Museum), one of France’s finest collections of prints, from the Renaissance to the 19th century (the Print Room); toys, drawings and artworks by and related to the work of the celebrated children’s author and illustrator Tomi Ungerer (Musée Tomi Ungerer), the marvels of the Zoological Museum, the listed interiors of Aubette 1928, and one of Europe’s most active, vibrant museums of modern and contemporary art (the Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain), the ultimate expression of the of the spirit of dynamism and creativity infusing the network as a whole. Today, the combined Museums of Strasbourg welcome almost 500,000 visitors every year. The group is one of very few such networks operating under joint directorship. Together, the ten museums of the Musées de Strasbourg are classified as national ‘Musées de France’, funded by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles. The exhibition Europe and the Spirit World is based at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, but encompasses three other museums in the group: the Zoological Museum, the Print Room, and the Museum of Fine Arts. All three have loaned important works, and collaborated on the curatorship of the different sections, as co-producers of the event as a whole.

Victor Brauner, Chimère, 1939, huile sur toile, 73 x 60 cm, Strasbourg, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg © ADAGP Paris, 2011


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The exhibition is also the result of important partnersThe exhibition is also the result of important partnersThe exhibition is also the result of important partnersThe exhibition is also the result of important partnership initiatives with a number of other Strasbourg hip initiatives with a number of other Strasbourg hip initiatives with a number of other Strasbourg hip initiatives with a number of other Strasbourg institutions:institutions:institutions:institutions: THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE UNIVERSITAIRE DE STRASBOURG (BNU) Strasbourg’s national and university library (the BNU) is the second largest in France, and the country’s biggest library in the field of higher education and research. The collections – incorporating an estimated three million documents – are all available to the public on an open-access basis. The BNU is a unique institution of its kind in France – a fully-fledged research library holding a major heritage collection of documents of all kinds, tracing the entire history of the written word, from the very earliest extant texts. The art collections (iconography, sculpture, and paintings) are a major reference resource for French, German and European art and history. The library is an acknowledged centre of expertise and scholarship for Germanic and Alsatian culture, modern Europe, religious science, the arts, Antiquity, and European literature. The library also holds an invaluable Egyptian collection (papyri, ostraca etc.), 6,700 manuscripts, 2,300 incunabula, a major iconographical collection, and more. The library holds over a million documents printed before 1920, directly accessible in the collections of the BNU. As an official copyright library, it is also a vital custodian of the printed heritage of the Alsace region. The library’s contemporary collections cover every field of the humanities and social sciences : law, history and geography, the history of science, economics, poltiical science, philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. The library is currently undergoing a major restructuring programme, but remains open to the public on two sites: no. 5 rue du Maréchal Joffre, and no. 9 rue Fischart. Throughout this period, readers can make use of two reading rooms equipped with twenty desks each, for the consultation of documents which cannot be printed at home. The heritage collections and digitised documents can be consulted online at the BNU Web site: www.bnu.fr

L'Illustration journal universel. 7 et 14 mai 1853. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. Photo : D.R.

LE JARDIN DES SCIENCES -- UNIVERSITÉ DE STRASBOURG The Jardin des Sciences at the University of Strasbourg pursues a mission to raise public awareness of the history, actuality and future of science, and the scientific world. The Jardin des Sciences aims to promote awareness and teaching about science and scientific heritage, to explain and debate key advances and issues in the world of science today, and to encourage young people to discover and develop their scientific vocations. The organization federates the museums and other science-based activities of the University of Strasbourg (research laboratories, for example), through a programme of events steered by the university, and participation in nationwide intitiatives such as the Nuit des Musées (‘Nights at the Museum’, the Journées du patrimoine (‘Heritage Open Days’), the Fête de la Science etc. The Jardin is committed to research on the University’s heritage collections, and is currently exploring ways to bring this rich resource to a wider public. The Jardin received official recognition from the Académie des Sciences in 2OO2, for its effective work and commitment in this area. Based at the heart of a nationally and internationally recognized university, the Jardin is a prominent player at the forefront of new developments in science, thanks to the active participation and recognized quality of its teaching and research personnel.


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Exhibition organisersExhibition organisersExhibition organisersExhibition organisers::::

With the labelWith the labelWith the labelWith the label from from from from::::

In association withIn association withIn association withIn association with::::

With support fromWith support fromWith support fromWith support from::::

AndAndAndAnd

Cabinet Michel LEVY & Associés, Strasbourg

Exhibition partExhibition partExhibition partExhibition partnnnnersersersers::::

Partners for the related programme of cultural eventsPartners for the related programme of cultural eventsPartners for the related programme of cultural eventsPartners for the related programme of cultural events: : : :

- Le Star, art house cinema - Festival européen du film

fantastique (from 11 September to 23 October 2011)

- Vidéo les Beaux Jours - Les Journées de l’architecture - INA

- ARTE, Europe’s culture channel - www.arte.tv

- Opéra Studio - Radio En Construction - Elektramusic - Médiathèques de la Ville et de la

Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg


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11110000. . . . Exhibitions awarded France’s ‘National importance’ status in 2011Exhibitions awarded France’s ‘National importance’ status in 2011Exhibitions awarded France’s ‘National importance’ status in 2011Exhibitions awarded France’s ‘National importance’ status in 2011

Actions en faveur des musées de France Seize expositions ont reçu le label d'exposition d'intérêt national

Le Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, annonce la liste des seize expositions qui ont reçu le label d'intérêt national pour l'année 2011. Le label « exposition d’intérêt national » récompense chaque année les manifestations, organisées par les musées de France, les plus remarquables par leur qualité scientifique, leurs efforts en matière de médiation culturelle et leur ouverture à un large public. Les 16 expositions retenues en 2011 sont les suivantes :

De Turner à Monet, la découverte de la Bretagne par les paysagistes au XIXème siècle Quimper, musée des Beaux-Arts, 1er avril 2011 – 31 août 2011

Richelieu à Richelieu - Architectures et décors d’un château disparu Tours, musée des Beaux-Arts, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011 Orléans, musée des Beaux-Arts, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011 Richelieu, musée municipal, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011

Des rites et des hommes. Les pratiques symboliques des Celtes, des Ibères et des Grecs en Provence, en Languedoc et en Catalogne Lattes, Site archéologique Lattara – musée Henri Prades, 9 juillet 2011 – 8 janvier 2012

Odilon Redon – Prince du Rêve 1840 – 1916 Montpellier, Musée Fabre, 7 juillet 2011 – 16 octobre 2011

Louis Boilly (1761-1845) Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 4 novembre 2011 – 6 février 2012

Adolf Wölfli Univers Villeneuve d’Ascq, LaM - Lille Métropole musée d’art moderne, art contemporain et art brut, 9 avril 2011 – 3 juillet 2011

Russie Viking, vers une autre Normandie ? Novgorod et la Russie du Nord, des migrations scandinaves à la fin du Moyen-Age (VIIIe-XVe Siècles) Caen, musée de Normandie, 25 juin 2011 – 31 octobre 2011

Le Théâtre des passions (1697-1759) : Cléopâtre, Médée, Iphigénie Nantes, musée des Beaux-Arts, 11 février 2011 – 22 mai 2011

Bonnard et le Cannet dans la lumière de la Méditerranée Le Cannet, musée Bonnard, 25 juin 2011 – 25 septembre 2011

Le génie de l’Orient. L’Occident moderne et les arts de l’Islam Lyon, musée des Beaux-Arts, 2 avril 2011 – 4 juillet 2011

L'Europe des Esprits ou la fascination de l'occulte (1750-1950) Strasbourg, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, 8 octobre 2011 – 12 février 2012

Six pieds sous terre... Il y a 3000 ans : archéologie dans les Landes de Gascogne Sabres, écomusée de Marquèze, 2 juin 2011 – 30 novembre 2011

Poussin-Moïse. Du dessin à la tapisserie Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 30 juin 2011 – 27 septembre 2011

Bien Faire et le faire savoir, Histoire de Manufrance 1885-1985 Saint-Etienne, musée d’art et d’industrie, 14 mai 2011– 27 février 2012

Le voyage de Monsieur de Lapérouse Saint-Denis de la Réunion, muséum d’histoire naturelle, 13 novembre 2010 – 30 octobre 2011

Ces expositions contribuent à la politique de diffusion et d’élargissement des publics des musées de France. Chaque musée bénéficie d’une subvention exceptionnelle de 10 000 à 50 000 euros attribuée par le Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

Paris, le 2 mars 2011

Communiqué de presse

Département de l’information et de la communication 01 40 15 80 11 [email protected] Direction générale des patrimoines Attachée de presse Ingrid Baron-Cadoret 01 40 15 36 47 [email protected]


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11111111. . . . Satellite Exhibition at Strasbourg’s Satellite Exhibition at Strasbourg’s Satellite Exhibition at Strasbourg’s Satellite Exhibition at Strasbourg’s Historical MuseumHistorical MuseumHistorical MuseumHistorical Museum THE UNITED BROTHERHOTHE UNITED BROTHERHOTHE UNITED BROTHERHOTHE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF STRASBOURG, A OD OF STRASBOURG, A OD OF STRASBOURG, A OD OF STRASBOURG, A DEDICATED MASONIC LODEDICATED MASONIC LODEDICATED MASONIC LODEDICATED MASONIC LODGEDGEDGEDGE OCTOBER 14OCTOBER 14OCTOBER 14OCTOBER 14THTHTHTH 2011 2011 2011 2011----FEBFEBFEBFEBRUARY 5RUARY 5RUARY 5RUARY 5THTHTHTH 2012 2012 2012 2012 ---- HISTORICAL MUSEUM O HISTORICAL MUSEUM O HISTORICAL MUSEUM O HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF STRASBOURGF STRASBOURGF STRASBOURGF STRASBOURG

On the occasion of the 200On the occasion of the 200On the occasion of the 200On the occasion of the 200thththth anniversary of the founding of Strasbourg’s Lodge, the Historical Museum of anniversary of the founding of Strasbourg’s Lodge, the Historical Museum of anniversary of the founding of Strasbourg’s Lodge, the Historical Museum of anniversary of the founding of Strasbourg’s Lodge, the Historical Museum of Strasbourg and the United Brotherhood have come together to familiarize the public with Freemasonry oStrasbourg and the United Brotherhood have come together to familiarize the public with Freemasonry oStrasbourg and the United Brotherhood have come together to familiarize the public with Freemasonry oStrasbourg and the United Brotherhood have come together to familiarize the public with Freemasonry of f f f 19191919thththth century Strasbourg. The exhibition “The United Brotherhood of Strasbourg, a dedicated Masonic century Strasbourg. The exhibition “The United Brotherhood of Strasbourg, a dedicated Masonic century Strasbourg. The exhibition “The United Brotherhood of Strasbourg, a dedicated Masonic century Strasbourg. The exhibition “The United Brotherhood of Strasbourg, a dedicated Masonic Lodge” will showcase a significant Masonic collection. This collection features an important array of Lodge” will showcase a significant Masonic collection. This collection features an important array of Lodge” will showcase a significant Masonic collection. This collection features an important array of Lodge” will showcase a significant Masonic collection. This collection features an important array of temple furnishings, aprons, sashes, and Masonic jeweltemple furnishings, aprons, sashes, and Masonic jeweltemple furnishings, aprons, sashes, and Masonic jeweltemple furnishings, aprons, sashes, and Masonic jewelry in addition to patents, lodge paintings and work ry in addition to patents, lodge paintings and work ry in addition to patents, lodge paintings and work ry in addition to patents, lodge paintings and work published by the Freemasonry and is living testimony to the dynamic and important role of Masonic life in published by the Freemasonry and is living testimony to the dynamic and important role of Masonic life in published by the Freemasonry and is living testimony to the dynamic and important role of Masonic life in published by the Freemasonry and is living testimony to the dynamic and important role of Masonic life in Strasbourg in the 19Strasbourg in the 19Strasbourg in the 19Strasbourg in the 19thththth century. The exhibition revolves around two main questions: century. The exhibition revolves around two main questions: century. The exhibition revolves around two main questions: century. The exhibition revolves around two main questions: ----what is a Masowhat is a Masowhat is a Masowhat is a Masonic nic nic nic Lodge? and what has the United Brotherhood contributed to Strasbourg?Lodge? and what has the United Brotherhood contributed to Strasbourg?Lodge? and what has the United Brotherhood contributed to Strasbourg?Lodge? and what has the United Brotherhood contributed to Strasbourg? Following the initiative and input of the United Brotherhood, a Masonic temple has been recreated inside the museum’s walls to display antique furnishings as well as several decorative elements. The Gerschel collection rich with its garments, jewelry and diverse patents provides insight into the rituals and ranks of Masonry. Added to this, the visitor will discover elements of the Historical Museum’s collection and outside loans from the city’s archives and the Malraux Multimedia Library with a number of documents evoking the lodge’s influence on Strasbourg dating back to 1743 and certain famous figures such as La Fayette who participated in the battle of Yorktown or Knight Pierre d’Isnard (1727-1807) the engraver turned military-man who is renowned for his plates of lower-ranking soldiers, or again Maximilien Deux Ponts, the Mayor of Dietrich, the Strasbourgeois printer Gustave Silbermann and illustrator and librarian Frédéric Piton etc. The exhibit is a perfect example of the devotion the United Brotherhood had for the city and abroad as recorded in the Masonic magazine Erwinia. Indeed, it illustrates the good deeds set in place by the masons through assistance to widows and orphans, but also in the organization of a free school for adults beginning in 1843 and their work creating the League of Education with Jean Macé, honorable member of the United Brotherhood and staunch supporter of free and compulsory education for all. For many years, largely due to Abbot Grandidier’s influence, it was believed that the Masonic lodges were tied to the cathedral’s lodge, especially in regards to the lodge of Strasbourg’s L’Œuvre Notre-Dame. The exhibition evokes the festivities organized in 1845 honoring Erwin de Steinbach, architect in charge of the construction of Strasbourg’s cathedral, festivities whose objective was to call to mind the mythical ties between speculative Masonry and operative Masonry, but also as a way to bring German and French Freemasons together. Finally the Freemasons of Strasbourg were involved in politics, siding with republicans and German and Polish revolutionaries in the 1930’s until 1848. Freemasons were active in the National Guard, (which often raised its voice in opposition to the regime in Strasbourg), worked as editors (Auguste Schneegans, Charles Boersch) of the Courrier du Bas-Rhin, quintessential republican newspaper owned by Gustave Silbermann, or were the driving force behind the Democrate du Rhin, as was the case for the republican Jean-Jacques Boersch. After Alsace-Lorraine’s annexation to Germany, the United Brotherhood refused to surrender to the authority of German lodges and went underground in 1872. After 1870 three members of the United Brotherhood along with Jean Macé became affiliated to the Alsace-Lorraine Lodge founded in Paris. This was intended to preserve the memory of the lost provinces and included members such as the sculptor Bartholdi, Gambetta, Joffre, etc. Concurrently, two German lodges were created in Strasbourg and Wilhelm II ordered the construction of the lodge situated at rue Joffre which remains a Masonic temple to this day. In addition to the exhibition a special visit of the permanent collection highlights a certain number of famous Masonic figures: Kellermann, Rouget de l’Isle, de Dietrich, the bellfounder Edel, David d’Angers, Maximilien Deux Ponts, etc.. A tour of the city organized by the Office of Tourism offers visitors an occasion to follow the traces left by masons in Strasbourg. A catalog will be published by ID. Edition in partnership with the United Brotherhood, the Museum of the Freemasons of Paris and the IRDERM (Rhennish Institute of Masonic Study and Research). Curated by: Monique Fuchs, curator of the Historical Museum of Strasbourg


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11112222. . . . Practical informationPractical informationPractical informationPractical information Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMuseum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMuseum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMuseum of Modern and Contemporary Art AddressAddressAddressAddress:::: 1 place Hans Jean Arp, Strasbourg Tel. : +33 (0)3 88 23 31 31 Tram: Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. Opening hoursOpening hoursOpening hoursOpening hours:::: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The museum and exhibition are closed on Monday. Special opening by arrangement for groups hosted by the museum’s educational service, or the Office du Tourisme de Strasbourg. Group bookingsGroup bookingsGroup bookingsGroup bookings :::: Compulsory advance booking for groups of 10 or more, on 03 88 88 50 50 (Monday to Friday, 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.) AdmissionAdmissionAdmissionAdmission:::: Standard: 10 € (concessions: 5 €). Individual tickets are valid for two people throughout the duration of Individual tickets are valid for two people throughout the duration of Individual tickets are valid for two people throughout the duration of Individual tickets are valid for two people throughout the duration of the exhibition.the exhibition.the exhibition.the exhibition.

EXHIBITION TICKETSEXHIBITION TICKETSEXHIBITION TICKETSEXHIBITION TICKETS Family ticket (2 adults – 2 children): 12.00 € Full pass: 40 € (concessions 20 €) for unlimited access to the exhibition and all related cultural events. (Advance booking only). Events programme pass: 30 € (concessions 15 €) (for unlimited access to the related programme of cultural events). Booking essential. Free admission for:

- under 18s - Carte Culture holders - Carte Atout Voir holders - Carte Museums Pass Musées holders - Carte Édu’Pass holders - Handicapped visitors - Students of art and art history - Job seekers - Benefit recipients - CUS personnel (on presentation of official badge).

Free admission for all on: - the first Sunday of each month - Hallowe’en night, Thursday 27 October, until midnight. - Mardi Gras, Wednesday, 8 February 2012.

Audio guide hire: 1.50 € Film season: 6 € for all screenings 1-day Pass: 10 €, concessions 5 €, (access to all Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg and their temporary exhibitions). 3-day pass: 15 € (no concessions : access to all Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg and their temporary exhibitions). Museums Pass Musées – 1 year, 190 museums: individual pass 71 euros, family pass 123 euros (access to over 190 museums in Alsace, Switzerland and Germany).

L’EUROPE DES ESPRITS Demande à adresser à :

OU LA FASCINATION DE L’OCCULTE, 1750-1950 Service communication

MUSÉE D'ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg8 octobre 2011 - 12 février 2012 Julie Barth

LISTE DES VISUELS TÉLÉCHARGEABLES SUR LE SITE 2, place du Château, StrasbourgWWW.MUSEES.STRASBOURG.EU [email protected]

Tél. + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 15Fax + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 42

1.1.1.1. Henry Fuseli, Robin Goodfellow-Puck,1787-1790, huile sur toile, 106 x 82 cm, 6.6.6.6. Frigander, Geschichte von einigen Gespenstern, welche sich in unterschiedlichen Sturzenegger-Stiftung, Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen Orten geäußert, und ihr Anliegen offenbart haben... M. C. N. Naumann.

2.2.2.2. Victor Brauner, Chimère,1939, huile sur toile, 73 x 60 cm, Gedanken von den sichtbaren Erscheinungen der Geister. 1754,Strasbourg, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. livre, 18 x 9 cm, Francfort / Main ; Leipzig : s. n. Frontispice, Strasbourg, BNU.

Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg © ADAGP Paris, 2011 Photo�: Jean-Pierre Rosenkranz, © Photo et collection BNU Strasbourg7.7.7.7. Jean Delville, L ’Amour des âmes, 1900, huile sur toile, 238 x 150 cm,Bruxelles, collection du Musée d'Ixelles. Photo : Mixed media © ADAGP Paris, 2011

3.3.3.3. Albert Von Schrenk-Notzing, La médium Eva C. avec une matérialisation 8.8.8.8. Albrecht Dürer, Le Chevalier, la Mort et le Diable,1513, sur une tête et une apparition lumineuse entre les mains, 17 mai 1912, gravure au burin, 24,4 x 18,7 cm, Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins.

épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 24 x 18 cm, Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de StrasbourgFribourg, Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V. 9.9.9.9. Carl Gustav Carus, Faust et Wagner avec le barbet, après 1851,Fonds du comité d’études de photographie transcendantale. Photo : D.R. fusain réhaussé de blanc, gouache sur papier brun, 52,2 x 40,6 cm,

4.4.4.4. Martin Schongauer, Tentation de saint Antoine, vers 1473, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresde.gravure au burin sur cuivre, 30,7 x 27,2 cm, Photo : Hans-Peter Klut, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresde

Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins. Photo�: M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg

5.5.5.5. Hélène Smith (née Elise-Catherine Muller), Paysage ultramartien, 1896, 10.10.10.10. Frantisek Drtikol, L’Âme,1930,

aquarelle sur papier, 23 x 30 cm, collection privée, Genève. Photo : Nicolas Spuhler épreuve sur papier aux encres grasses, impression en demi-ton, 29,4 x 22,7 cm© Collection Société française de photographie. Photo : D.R.

11.11.11.11. Ophtalmotrope,Région Alsace, Inventaire général / 16.16.16.16. Victor Hugo, Dentelles et spectres, fin 1855-1856,Université de Strasbourg-Jardin des Sciences / AMUSS. Photo : Christian Creutz plume et lavis d’encre brune, fusain, application de dentelle, papier vergé,

12.12.12.12. Jacques Herold, Le Grand transparent, 7,2 x 6,1 cm, Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris © Maisons de Victor Hugo / Roger Viollet

moulage en bronze des années 1970, d’après le plâtre réalisé en 1947, 17.17.17.17. André Masson, La Sorcière, 1942, huile et tempera sur toile, 72 x 51 cm,185 x 80 x 52 cm, Courtesy Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris © ADAGP Paris, 2011 Paris, Comité André Masson. Photo�: N. Fussler © ADAGP Paris, 2011

13.13.13.13. L ’Illustration journal universel. 7 et 14 mai 1853. 18.18.18.18. John Martin, Sadak à la recherche des eaux de l ’oubli, 1812,Paris, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. Photo : D.R. huile sur toile, 76,2 x 62,4 cm, Southampton City Art Gallery.

14.14.14.14. Paul Klee, Demoiselle démoniaque,1937, Photo�: The Bridgeman Art Librarycrayon de couleur et couleur à la colle sur papier sur carton, 45,6 x 30,9 cm, 19.19.19.19. H. Mairet, Séance avec Eusapia Palladino, chez Camille Flammarion, rue Cassini,

Bern, Zentrum Paul Klee. Photo : D.R. 25 novembre 1898, épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 22,2 x 26,3 cm,

Paris, Société Astronomique de France, Fonds Camille Flammarion. Photo�: © Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection

15.15.15.15. Paul-Elie Ranson, Les Sorcières autour du feu, 1891, 20.20.20.20. Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation XIV, 1910, huile sur toile, 74 x 125,5 cm,huile sur toile, 38 x 65 cm, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental Legs de Mme Nina Kandinsky Centre Pompidou, Paris,

Maurice Denis « Le Prieuré ». Crédit : Y. Tribes Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle.

© Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN / Jean-Claude Planchet © ADAGP Paris, 201121.21.21.21. Francisco Goya, La Conjuration (Les Sorcières),1797-1798,huile sur toile, 43 x 30 cm, Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano.Photo : Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid

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